Six Days
by ohgodthespian
Summary: On your fourteenth birthday you get a TiMER, everyone does. It's the normal, expected thing to do. Kaylee is anything but normal, and that's confirmed when her TiMER reads six days: the first day of high school. What happens when her "one" causes more trouble than anyone expected? Rated T for language. The rating may change later.
1. Installation

_Hey everyone, this is my first ever Fanfiction that I'm posting. I don't own the idea of the TiMER but everything else is mine. Not sure if that's a good thing, but take it or leave it._

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"Happy birthday Kaylee!" A chorus of people screamed as I entered my living room. The fact that it was too quiet as I entered should have been a dead giveaway that something was up. But because I had just come from soccer practice at the school I was more focused on taking a shower and collapsing in my bed. The last thing on my mind was a big group of people wanting to be close to me telling me happy birthday. I faked a happy look and genuinely was surprised. I honestly didn't know anyone was planning on throwing me a surprise party, even if it wasn't hard to figure out. Fourteen is the prime year, the year to get the TiMER. Everyone has big parties for this birthday. The well-off families have the TiMER put in at the party. Other's simply celebrate and then go to the centers later. I was sure my parents were planning on having it put in during the party. With our uncle a TiMER doctor, he was sure to give a good deal. And chances were I'd get to pick a cool color with no extra charge.

Fifty years after the first TiMER was invented they finally added colors to it. Different chimes were added when my parents were old enough to get theirs. Both people pick the same chime and it adds to the whole saying that the person is your other half.

Scientists who were also romantics first introduced the TiMER a long time ago. Or that's how everyone tells the story. When someone gets a TiMER one of two things happen. Either a timer shows up, with years, months, and days on it or flashing dashes appear. If there is a time on it, your soul mate has a timer. If there are flashing dashes your soul mate doesn't. It's pretty simple how it works. On midnight the day you are to meet your soul mate the chime happens. And then any time throughout that day you can run into them. And when you do, both chimes go off. Apparently it was a big deal when the chime went off ages ago, but now it happens all the time and everyone's just used to it.

There once was a movement going against the TiMERs, claiming the old way of "dating" was the best way to go. As time went on that movement got smaller and smaller and I'm not aware of anyone that's old enough that doesn't have one. It's not mandatory, some people say there are places where people don't get them, but around here it's the normal thing to do. You turn fourteen, you get a TiMER.

Personally, I was not looking forward to getting mine. They said it felt like getting your ears pierced, but I wasn't worried about that. The idea that I would know when I was to meet my soul mate is a scary idea. At fourteen that's the last thing on my mind. I was worried about starting high school in a week. I was worried about getting pimples. I was worried about what clothes I was going to wear the next day. And not to mention there was a possibility my soul mate didn't have one yet. He could be thirteen and not yet fourteen. Or he could live in one of those places that didn't have TiMERs. Or I could just not have one at all. I had never heard of that, but it would be my luck that I wouldn't have one.

"Kaylee!" a voice yelled at me. It was Spencer, my neighbor and best friend from birth practically. He was a couple months older than me and I had over heard our parents talking a couple days ago about the possibility of him being my soul mate; his TiMER wasn't activated yet.

_"They've practically grown up attached at the hip," I heard my mom say. I froze; I knew she was talking about Spencer and me. Spencer's mom had come over and I hadn't heard her leave. I was about to go into the kitchen to get a snack, but I didn't want to interrupt their conversation. Plus I was interested in finding out what they were talking about._

_"He taught her how to ride a bike," Spencer's mom said._

_"And how to tie her shoes," my mom added._

_"They spend so much time together as it is," Spencer's mom claimed. This was true, but what were they getting at?_

_"And it does seem a bit perfect that his TiMER is still flashing," my mom said. TiMER?! That's what they were talking about? Spencer… my soul mate? He was like a brother to me. There was no way. I ran as fast as I could back to my room. Did Spencer know about this? Did Spencer think I was his soul mate too? _

Spencer pulled on my arm and led me away from the crowd of people who were talking to each other. As I turned to look back at them, no one seemed to notice that I was leaving. I knew better than to ask questions when Spencer dragged me places. A long time ago I learned to just trust him and go with whatever.

He looked all around before entering the front room and closed the doors behind us.

"I wanted to give you your present before everyone else did and so you could admire it alone and everything," Spencer said after a moment. He flashed a big toothy grin at me ran his fingers through his hair. His mom was allowing him to grow it out since he got his TiMER and it was currently in a weird not long but long length. It made me smile because he could put it in a small ponytail and we always dreamed of having tails. We dreamed mainly of being foxes, but foxes have tails so it's essentially the same thing. He was a white fox with his super blonde hair and I was a red fox due to my red hair.

Spencer reached from inside his coat and pulled out a small box. This was definitely shaped different from any other present box he had given me before. Last year his gift was a hover board and the year before that it was a really neat bow-and-arrow. He handed me the box and smiled. It didn't weigh a whole lot either.

"Well… open it," he encouraged, staring at me with his steel blue eyes. I smiled and opened the box. Inside was a necklace. It was a necklace with a green pendent on the end of it. The green seemed to be swimming inside the vial it was in. It was mesmerizing to look at.

"Wow," was all I could say. He laughed nervously and pushed me slightly.

"Don't get all mushy," he teased. "It's a family necklace. Because I am the oldest and the only male, I get to do what I want with it, and I want to give it to you. It matches your eyes." I blushed and laughed a little. Spencer was trying to be a tough guy but failing miserably.

"Well help me put it on you doof," I teased back and held out the necklace. As he was putting it on the door opened.

My mother looked at us for a moment and then smiled. "Come on you two," she started. "We're going to eat cake, open presents, and then its TiMER time." I rolled my eyes when she turned away and Spencer pushed me out of the room.

The necklace seemed to glimmer in the light. It was a really nice necklace and everything, but I didn't understand why he had given me it instead of a really cool toy. I wasn't going to question it too much though, because he seemed to really think it was a good idea and I didn't want to tell him anything else.

The cake was a red velvet kind; my favorite kind and the gifts were okay. There were a lot of money or gift cards and a few cool things here and there. Everyone was really waiting for the TiMER to get activated though. I wasn't ready for it. If I had a choice I wouldn't get it. I would make the age at least sixteen. I wasn't sure if I really cared about a soul mate honestly. It just seemed like too much to deal with. And too much waiting. Some people had years and years of waiting.

Before I knew it my uncle had the TiMER machine out and was loading my information in it. He handed me a tablet to pick the color and chime. There was no question I wanted a red one. The chime was different though. Everyone said you would know when the chime was right and that it would play one until you told it to stop. A ton of chimes played before there was one that blew me away. It was a beautiful piano and harp riff that I just knew was the right one. Everyone cheered that I had chosen one and the machine was put up against the inside of my left arm.

"Just a little sting," my uncle said as I held my breath. He hit the button and the TiMER shot into my arm. I yelped out in pain. That was more than a little sting. It felt like a needle injecting into me. Although that was pretty much what it was.

"Now," my uncle continued. "We give it a minute to adjust to your body and fully generate. Then the light will come on, and you know the rest." He smiled and patted my back. I gulped and stared my arm. It was a little red and swollen but that was normal I was told. The life signal on the TiMER slowly ticked up and then flashed full.

The light came on and the TiMER loaded. Six days. My TiMER read six days. That was the first day of school. I stared at everyone around the room. My mother and Spencer's mother looked shocked. I couldn't find Spencer anywhere. My dad was overjoyed. He was rambling on about a son-in-law. Everyone in the room was congratulating me and telling me how I was lucky and a whole bunch of other things. But I wasn't focused on any of it. It sounded like one big blur to me. I needed to find Spencer.

"Spencer!" I yelled as I ran through the woods behind our houses. There was a tree house we built last year a mile into the woods and I knew he'd be there. I ran at full speed, dodging trees and jumping over roots. "Spencer!"

When I reached the tree house I was right. Spencer was up there. And he had taken the rope ladder up with him.

"Spencer Michael Conture! Throw down that ladder," I yelled up at him.

"No!" I heard him yell back.

"I'll tell everyone the time you pooped your pants in gym and how you lied about it being mud if you don't!"

"I was six, who cares about that now!"

"I'll tell them about what you did to Mr. Cavanaugh last year!"

"You wouldn't dare!"

"I would too, and you know it!"

"No one would believe you!"

"He was sick for a few days after it, I'm sure they would!"

Silence pursued after that and a moment later the ladder fell down. I smirked and climbed up.

Spencer was lying on a beanbag throwing a ball in the air and catching it, missing most of the time. I laughed and grabbed the ball before it had a chance to meet his hands.

"Excuse you," he grumbled, not looking at me.

"You are one to talk, Mr. run out of the party," I retorted.

"Would you really tell everyone about Cavanaugh?" he asked, looking concerned.

"Probably. I mean, that was disgusting."

"I didn't think he'd drink it."

"I didn't think you'd actually do that in a cup."

"You dared me."

"As a joke."

He scoffed and sat up. "What did you expect, I was a thirteen year old kid who just figured out I could do that."

"I know. I was curious about it, so I mean it is my fault a bit," I shrugged and threw the ball at him.

"I can't believe he thought it was milk. A little thick to be milk," he laughed as he caught the ball.

"And it smelled a little weird. It definitely didn't smell like milk," I claimed, wrinkling my nose.

"It was fun all the same. But you really can't tell anyone about that. I'm pretty sure it's illegal to give your teacher a cup full of semen ha-ha," he joked.

"You're the one that whipped it out and did it," I reminded him. He threw his arms up in guilt and laughed. "So why did you run out like that?"

He was quiet a moment and looked away. "I didn't want to have to face my mom."

"What do you mean?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"It's embarrassing but she was sure we'd be soul mates," he admitted. "And the necklace was supposed to be kind of a gift because of it. But I got nervous because I didn't want to have to give it in front of everyone. And now well… yeah."

I nodded and started to take off the necklace. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"Well, I'm not your soul mate," I started. "So you need to give this to your soul mate one day, not me. I'll always be your best friend, but this doesn't belong to me."

He shook his head. "You keep it… at least until I find her. Then I'll make you give it to me, but it looks good on you. And maybe green won't even be a good color on her. You never know. So you keep it. At least for now."

I nodded and punched him in the arm. I knew things were going to be okay with us. They always were. We could never stay upset or mad at each other and this was something really stupid in my opinion. So things could be okay. There was no way I could love Spencer like a soul mate anyway. I'd seen him almost every day of my life from the time I was born. Spencer was more of a platonic soul mate if anything. We got each other. It was like we could read each other's minds sometimes.

"So… six days," Spencer said after a moment, looking at his own flashing TiMER.

"Yeah," I said uneasily.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah," I lied. "It's just, six days is really soon. And what if he's totally weird, or what if he's Brandon Tyler?" Spencer burst out laughing and almost started crying he was laughing so hard. Brandon Tyler was the biggest bully and bad guy I'd ever met. When we were in third grade he pushed me in the mud for calling him fat and then beat up Spencer when Spencer tried to tell him not to do that. From that moment on we didn't get along. And in the time from third grade until now he had gotten fatter and meaner. I definitely did not want him as a soul mate.

"That's ridiculous," Spencer replied. "Your soul mate is someone you are going to love and think the world of. Brandon Tyler is the scum of the world. You don't have to worry about that. Wait, six days is the first day of school. I'll be there when you meet him! He better be good for you. I'll have to tell him he better treat you right."

I laughed. Spencer and I had every class together this year and we were going to walk to and from school because we lived only two blocks away. It would definitely be an interesting start to the year.

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_A/n: so there's the first "chapter" so to speak. I think it probably starts off slow but I found this was a good break. Honestly I haven't really even reviewed it so it probably has baby errors here and there. So tell me what you think!_


	2. Apparently it's the big day

_The idea of the TiMER is not mine in any way shape or form. Sorry for the delay in posting, it has been hectic recently. Enjoy!_

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The next day after soccer practice, my mother took me to the clothing store to pick out new clothes for the school year. She wanted to get me a special outfit for the first day of school, for THE day. She kept going on and on about it while we were out. She repeated how dad and her met at least twelve times. Finally we were able to return home and I shut myself in my room so I didn't have to hear her talk any longer. I opened my window and threw a rock across the way. It pinged on Spencer's window and after a few moments he appeared.

"Sup," he casually said, leaning against the window. He seemed awfully cheery.

"Why are you so happy?" I asked with a smirk. He shrugged and looked at me. "Whatever. I want to show you my outfit for the first day of school." He rolled his eyes but didn't attest. It was a tradition that I do this, so he was used to it.

I changed into the black dress with green accents and stood in front of the window.

Spencer wolf whistled. "It looks nice. If your mate doesn't like it, we'll have a problem. Let's just hope he doesn't like it TOO much."

My mouth dropped as Spencer howled out with laughter. The dress was a little revealing but I hadn't quite fully developed enough to make it look terribly revealing or anything.

"Go back to circle jerking," I joked and closed my window. I could hear him still dying of laughter as I smirked at him through the window and turned away from him.

There was an hour left. One hour. One hour until the day I would meet my soul mate. Spencer was sitting on my bed with me and we were both staring at my arm. He had crawled into my window ten minutes ago after I told him I couldn't sleep. I had woken him up, as was apparent from the lack of pants and a shirt. I had seen him in less than that so I wasn't shocked when he crawled through my window in a pair of boxers. The guy was still lanky and a bit too tall for his body and it made me laugh. His dad was a nice looking man so we were all expecting Spencer to fill into his body eventually.

Thirty minutes. "Spencer," I said and then stopped.

"What?" he asked after he realized I wasn't going to continue.

"What do I do once I see him?" I asked softly. No one had told me what to do. Spencer looked at me with a blank face. He didn't know either. If class was about to start what would I do? Or just in general, what was I supposed to do.

"Am I expected to kiss him?" I asked, this time a little louder. I had never thought about that until now. Soul mates kissed. And I was sure they did a lot more than that or I wouldn't be here. I wasn't expected to do that right away… right?

"Have you ever kissed anyone before?" Spencer asked. There was no judgment or accusation in his voice. He was simply curious.

"You know I haven't," I demanded. "You've been with me enough to know that."

Spencer shrugged. "You went to that summer camp last summer for a couple weeks. I've heard things happen at summer camps."

I snorted. "Things do happen at camps. But I didn't do anything with anybody. I was too focused on the soccer part of the camp." It was true that I could have kissed one of the guys in my group, and probably do more because he was older and looked like he was experienced, but I passed up that chance. I just didn't want to, honestly. I wasn't going to tell Spencer that though. "Have you kissed anyone?"

Spencer shook his head and looked away. That kind of shocked me. There were plenty of girls who would kiss him if he wanted them to. I'd heard people talking about it in school. "Why not?" I asked.

"I've always thought you kiss people you care about, so I'm not going to kiss someone I don't care about," he claimed. That made sense to me.

"It's weird anyway," I said and crossed my arms.

"What, kissing?" Spencer asked. I nodded. "You haven't ever watched porn then have you?"

My mouth gaped open. "No, of course not!" I proclaimed. "That's gross. And I'm talking worse than Cavanaugh."

Spencer laughed quietly and fell back on my bed. This apparently was really funny. I kicked him in the side with my foot, which he grabbed and pulled, causing me to yelp a little. Quickly he covered my mouth with his hand and giggled quietly.

"You wouldn't want your parents to come rushing in here," he claimed, not moving his hand. I covered my mouth with both of my hands as well and giggled. Then I pulled his hand off mine.

"And why not?" I claimed stubbornly. He shrugged and stared at me, not saying anything.

Before I knew what was happening his mouth was on mine. Somehow I knew what to do and ran my fingers through his hair pushing back as hard as he was. He made a low noise that seemed to come from his chest, causing me to smile. I put one hand on his chest and pushed him down into my bed, going with him. His hands wrapped around my waist. I stopped for a moment and looked at him.

"What are we doing?" I breathed quietly.

"Tonight is our only chance to do this, and I've wanted to for so long," he breathed back, still keeping his hands on me. "Are you okay with this?"

"As long as we tell no one," I admitted and kissed him once more.

A clock off in the distance rang midnight and my chime went off. We both froze and looked at my arm. It was midnight. I quickly moved away from Spencer and looked at him.

"I'm sorry," he said and sat up.

"Don't be," I admitted. I liked that way too much for him to be sorry.

"Are you going to tell him?" Spencer asked his eyes fixated on my arm. I shook my head.

"No one has to know." I kissed him gently and pulled away from him, knowing I'd never do that again.

An alarm blared in my ears, waking me up. My head was pounding and I really didn't want to get up. A knock on my door with a "First day of school!" yell was heard, making me really not want to get up. Normally I would be excited that it was the first day of school, and more excited that it was the first day of high school, but that was the last place I wanted to be today. It wasn't even that it was school that was the problem; the little fact that I was going to meet the guy I would spend the rest of my life with was what the problem was. It was almost certain that everyone would know by the time I walked into school. There were a few people from school at my party and my good friend Lexi was the queen of telling everyone every juicy detail of everything that happened ever. I was sure she'd be coming to my house any second, wanting to be with me the whole day so that she could see my other half. She had most of my classes with the exception of gym and chorus. She didn't perform she always told me, and somehow we'd been placed in different gym classes. She wouldn't want gym with me anyway, while I loved playing soccer and anything involving physical activity she would rather be sitting on the sidelines with makeup and flirting with boys.

With my first day of school outfit on I bounced downstairs to see Lexi sitting at my table talking to my mom.

"There you are!" she squealed at me, jumping up. "Are you ready for today?" I shrugged and sat at the table. "Oh come on, today is so exciting! Better than my day will be. I do hope your boy isn't some weird gross kid." She kept babbling on and on but I tuned her out while I ate cereal. There was a puzzle on the back of the cereal box.

Spencer burst into the kitchen minutes later dressed in clothes I hadn't ever seen before. He had on a black and white stripped sweater on with khaki pants. I wasn't even aware he'd gone clothes shopping for school. As if he read my mind he said, "My mom bought me these. The pants are a little big but she insisted I have new clothes. It's whatever. Oh, hey Lexi, hey Mrs. Parker."

"I think the outfit makes you look older, it looks nice," my mom said with a smile. It was more of a disappointed smile, but I was sure only I could tell that. Lexi smiled at him and continued to talk about soul mates.

The walk to school was a silent one. At least on my end it was silent. Lexi and Spencer were talking about classes and teachers the whole time. I was looking out for a guy walking by, hoping it would happen earlier than later. I didn't want it to happen in a class or in the hallways. There were too many people around for that.

First period was math. Lexi and I had seats in the same row, and Spencer was one row over. There wasn't anything exciting in the class. The teacher looked ancient and probably was around before the invention of calculators. She seemed like she graded easily though. Spencer doodled the whole class. I couldn't tell what Lexi was doing because she was behind me. I stared blankly at the board, halfway paying attention. The teacher was just going over rules so I wasn't too worried about it. It was the farther thing from my mind… that was sure.

Second period was chorus. Spencer and I said bye to Lexi as she trekked off to home economics. There was a ton of people in this class, so it was very possible that 'he' was in this one. I gulped as Spencer pushed me through the door and looked all around. I made sure to make eye contact with every guy in the room, but no chimes went off. Spencer shrugged and we made our way to our voice sections. We actually got music to take home with us and practice after we had gone over it and it seemed like even though we'd just be singing it would be an intense class.

We caught up with Lexi in the halls to go to lunch. She didn't have much to say about home ec and seemed disappointed that I hadn't found the guy yet. When we entered the lunchroom she got excited though. "What if he's in here!?" She screamed and pulled both Spencer and me into the line. We made it through the line without finding the guy and to our table in the clear as well. I was really starting to get nervous. There were three classes left in the day. Next we would all go to English, then Spencer and I would go to gym, and then we'd meet up again for World History. Time was ticking down to when I would meet the guy. If I was supposed to meet him at school that is. We hadn't made plans after school yet, so it was very possible we would go to the coffee place across the street and he could be there. But I was thinking too much about it. I tried to participate in the conversation at the table to lighten my mood. Spencer's friend Jack and Lexi's friend Hunter had joined us and this girl who had been in our class last year, Hannah, had also joined us. They were talking about cute teachers.

"Did you guys hear what happened to coach Bracket?" Hunter had said a minute after we sat down.

"Isn't he the JV soccer coach?" Lexi asked.

"Yeah, I saw him two days ago at soccer practice, what happened?" I asked.

"He got a little friendly with Alexis Zimmer's mom," Hunter replied.

"Woah, aren't they both married, with TiMERs?" Spencer asked. We had known Alexis since elementary school, so we knew her mom was married at least.

"Yeah, apparently after your soccer practice Bracket would go over to The Zimmer's house because Mr. Zimmer works late or something. Word is he left the position here and moved out of town because someone saw them together. How bizarre is that?" Hunter told us. We all nodded. It seemed terrible that two people with TiMERs that didn't match would hook up with each other.

"So what are they doing about a JV coach?" Jack butted in, looking at me. I shrugged.

"Gah Kaylee, you should know these kinds of things," Lexi said with a big grin on her face. "But luckily I know. They've hired a new guy and I've heard he is cute with a capital C. And they aren't having JV soccer practice for a few days until he gets settled in."

"So how old is he?" Jack asked.

"He must be like 23 or so I would guess," Hannah replied.

"Yeah, I heard he was just out of college. He graduated from Sarthe University. That's not too far from here," Lexi added.

"That'll be nice, after having Mrs. Thatcher for math," I said. "She's got to be older than dust."

Everyone agreed with me and the table went silent for a moment.

"There he is! I think," Hannah exclaimed, pointing across the lunchroom. We all turned our heads towards the teacher's table but didn't see any young guy. "You guys missed him, he was leaving."

"Well maybe we'll have him for gym. That'd at least help Kaylee, get to know new soccer coach before practicing with him," Spencer said, gesturing to me.

"Oh Kaylee, you better tell me if he's cute!" Hannah chirped.

I shrugged. "Yeah, I guess I can do that."

"I doubt she'll think he's cute though," Jack said, taking a big bite out of his sandwich. We all stared at him. "I mean, she's going to find her soul mate today. She doesn't really have any other time to think about cute guys. The soul mate is the only one who matters. You give everything to that soul mate. Your first kiss, your first you know, and more. That's what my older sister told me."

Spencer looked at me and turned red. I looked away and continued to eat my sandwich. So we kissed. No one had to know that, and he needed to stop turning red. He was sure to give us away with that attitude. I kicked him under the table and acted like nothing happened.

English seemed to go by with a blur. Neither Spencer nor Lexi sat near me, but Hannah was in the class and sat one row over next to me. I wasn't exactly good friends with her, but it was better than not knowing anyone.

And it wasn't really that I didn't know anyone. That was a lie. At least half of the kids I did know. There were only two middle schools that fed into our high school. But even the kids I knew I knew only because I had seen them growing up. The school was pretty big and there were plenty of people you sort of knew, but only knew their face. There was no guarantee I would know their name or even who exactly they were.

I was really looking forward to gym. I had been in soccer camps since I was little and had played on YMCA teams and then a travelling team. Soccer was something I could see myself doing for the rest of my life, and that was something I wanted to stick with. Spencer often helped me practice. We've spent hours in my backyard practicing drills or simply taking shots at the goal. He didn't play, but he was always encouraging me and helping me out.

When we entered the gym I immediately smiled. A band I had grown up listening to, Styx, was playing softly over the loud speakers. It wasn't loud enough to where people were actively listening to it, but I could hear it just fine. The teacher hadn't come in yet and there didn't seem to be anything really to do yet. There were no balls out or anything so I sat on the bleachers and Spencer followed. The bell rang and out teacher still wasn't in.

The double doors swung open quickly and a younger guy stepped through it. "I'm sorry I-" but before he could continue his chime started going off. My chime started going off. Our chimes were going off. They were the same chimes. This guy was the other owner to my TiMER. It seemed as if time I was frozen. We just stared at each other. He was really, really cute. There was something boyish about him… it was probably his face. He had dimples and light brown curly hair that was a little long for a teacher it seemed. His eyes were the lightest shade of brown I had ever seen. His face seemed to be frozen too. I wasn't sure what mine read, but his read of a mixture of confusion, shock, and nervousness. Spencer cleared his throat, bringing me back into reality. I looked around. Everyone in the class had shocked looks on their faces too. No one spoke or moved an inch. They were looking at me. Everyone was looking at me. I looked back up at this guy… my teacher… my soul mate… whoever he was. I didn't even know his name.


	3. Him?

_The TiMER itself doesn't belong to me, but any idea you don't recognize I gladly take credit for._

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"Well… Uh, hey," he finally said a moment later to the whole class. He walked completely in the room and stood at the front of the class. Everyone had filled in the bleachers behind Spencer and me. "I'm Mr. Jackson, you can call me coach Jackson since I'm the JV men and women soccer coach or you can just call me Jackson, and I'll be your teacher this year for gym."

"More than that for some of us," someone snickered near the back.

"Excuse me?" Mr. Jackson said, stopping his introduction.

"You heard me," the kid answered in a snide tone. I turned to look. It was Brandon Tyler. Why he had to be in my gym class was beyond me, but there he was. And there he was continuing to make my life worse.

"Brandon shut up," Spencer barked. In a couple leaps Brandon was down near him, egging him on.

"Make me little girl," Brandon growled back, getting closer to his face. Spencer stood up and closed the short gap between them.

"Boys!" Mr. Jackson yelled. I pulled at Spencer's arm but he pushed me off. "Both of you sit down now!" They weren't listening to Mr. Jackson though.

"I am NOT a little girl and I am sick and tired of your bullshit Brandon," Spencer spit out, purposefully spitting on Brandon. Brandon retaliated by punching him in the face. Spencer barely flinched and returned a punch and then kneed him. Mr. Jackson advanced on the situation and pulled Spencer away from Brandon. Brandon followed and tried to attack Spencer through Mr. Jackson but was stopped when Mr. Jackson put his arm up and separated the two. He was stronger than he looked. Mr. Jackson was about a third of the size of Brandon and was shorter than Spencer.

"Both of you stop this now. Sit down while I call someone to get both of you," Mr. Jackson said as he glared at both Spencer and Brandon.

"Someone will have to come get you too, after they find out what happened when you entered class," Brandon said, laughing. Mr. Jackson paused for a moment, looking scared for a second but then shook his head and continued to dial someone on the phone that on the wall.

I stood up. "Excuse me…" Mr. Jackson started, not knowing my name.

"Kaylee," I whispered as I started walking to the door.

"Excuse me Kaylee, please stop walking to the door. Kaylee! Sorry, I-" Mr. Jackson continued into the phone. I had to get out of there though. There was no one in the halls as I made my way to the bathroom. I pushed open the door and walked to the nearest stall and locked the door. Not only did I find the guy, but also the guy was my teacher. How could something like this happen? No one warned me about this. No one told me the guy might be nine or ten years older than me… and he was my teacher. There was no way I could go back into that room. They would all stare at me. He would stare at me. I couldn't face any of them. It made it ten times worse that this guy would be my soccer coach. I wanted to play so bad but I couldn't if He was there. That would cause problems.

Someone entered the bathroom and I realized I had been crying. I sniffled and got quiet. It was someone with big steps. It was probably just an upper-classman. The footsteps seemed to be getting closer and closer and then they stopped.

"Kaylee?" A voice asked. I didn't recognize the voice. "Are you in there?" There was a knock on my stall. I opened the door. The voice belonged to Mr. Jackson.

"What are you doing in the girls' bathroom?" was all I could manage to say. He laughed at me.

"You rushed out the gym and these bathroom doors take a while to close, so I followed to make sure you are okay. Luckily Mrs. Archer was walking by the room and I asked if she could watch the class for a moment," he stammered out with a half smile.

"Why?" I whispered, crossing my arms.

"Well… I, uh," he stuttered and looked down at his arm. His TiMER had gone dark.

"I don't even know your name," I admitted, trying to be strong.

"Andy," he said and put out his hand. I shook it and laughed.

"As in Andrew? Andrew Jackson? What on earth were your parents thinking?" I said, unable to control my laughter.

He rolled his eyes. "Normally people don't point that out, and when they do I just say that's why I go by Andy. Will you come out of this stall… I don't want anyone to see me in here."

"Because you're my teacher?"

"Because I'm a guy and this is the girls' bathroom."

"Oh."

He outstretched his hand and pulled me out of the small stall. I quickly let go of his hand but smiled weakly at him as we walked out of the bathroom and back to the classroom. The class was silent when we entered and everyone, included Mrs. Archer, stopped doing whatever they were doing and stared at us. Spencer and Brandon were nowhere to be found.

"Hopefully the rest of the year won't be as crazy as the first ten minutes," Andy/ Mr. Jackson laughed and went over to talk to Mrs. Archer. The class turned their attention to me as I sat back down in the front row of bleachers. I didn't want to talk to anyone and I wasn't ready for anyone's questions. It was going to be a long year.

Before the bell rang I pulled out a piece of paper from the back of my notebook. "I'll come to your office after school" I wrote and signed my name. On my way out of the room I handed it to Andy. He read it and nodded, trying not to smile. It was hard fighting my own, considering how cute he was. He fact that he was wearing a dark green polo with khaki shorts made him look like a kid wanting to grow up too fast and added to the cuteness.

As students piled out of classrooms the halls got louder and louder and it was making my head hurt. Or maybe my head was hurting before then but either way it didn't feel good. It seemed as if everyone was staring at me, but that was impossible because surely not everyone could know already. Lexi hadn't been in the class.

A tap on my shoulder made me jump. "So was he cute?" Hannah asked, catching up to walk beside me.

"Who?" I asked, a little out of it.

"The new soccer coach, was he your gym teacher?" She exclaimed in a little louder than a whisper.

"Shhh!" I hissed, looking around as I did so.

"What?" she asked innocently. She looked around with a confused face. I looked down at my arm and then back at Hannah.

"YOU FOUND HIM!? WHERE IS HE?" She yelled in excitement.

"Sh!" I insisted. "Not so loud… The soccer coach is Him." Her mouth dropped open. If I hadn't have dragged her along with me she would have held up traffic in the hallway.

"But he must be like 30," she protested once we were at my locker. I was struggling to get it open. Spencer had opened it for me this morning and obviously he couldn't do that now.

"I think he's 23," I retorted.

"Still! You're 14. That's strange. Maybe there's a mistake," she pressed.

I ignored her and finally got my locker open. My books went into it and I left Hannah standing at my locker. What if she was right? What if it was a mistake? Could that be possible? This day was one big ball of confusion.

When I saw Lexi in my next class she bee lined straight to my desk.

"Shut. Up." She said and sat down in some kid named Frank Monsieur's seat.

"That's not your seat," I claimed, knowing that's not why she sat down.

"Mr. Jackson? That is too much. Tell me the rumors aren't true? Did Spencer really fight Brandon Tyler? And Mr. Jackson ran after you, did something happen? Tell me!" I was about to open my mouth to tell her to go away when the bell rang. The kid I assumed was Frank tapped on Lexi's shoulder. She gave me the _we'll talk later _eyes and went to sit down. I put my head on my desk.

When the bell rang to dismiss us for the day Lexi immediately came to my side.

"Spill," she said and stared at me. So I told her everything. It was bound to be the talk of the school soon if not already, so it was best if I told my side before things got too crazy. Lexi remained quiet for the whole story. "He can't get fired for this can he? I mean, you two are soul mates. The TiMER says so. Our whole staff has them. And TiMERs don't lie. You said yourself he's really cute and you never think people are cute. Woah. How are you going to tell your parents?"

I froze. My parents. I'd forgotten about them. There was no way I could hide it from them. The moment I got home they would be asking all about him and when they could meet him. They would want to meet him today. Mom would be waiting at home for me. Dad wouldn't get home from the hospital until late, he was working an ER shift today, but he would insist on meeting the guy. I didn't know what to do. Maybe Andy would.

I told Lexi I was going to go talk to him and for her to find Spencer and not wait for me. She gave me a wink as she left. All I could do was groan.

When I entered came to his office the door was cracked open. I knocked and then entered his office. There was no one there. A sign on his desk was addressed to me. "On the pitch, come over when you get this. Andy." His handwriting was elegant. That was definitely something I wanted in a guy.

I hadn't ever been to the soccer stadium in the high school before so when I walked onto the pitch I was awe struck. Most high schools centered around football, but mine was all about soccer. Both varsity teams were constantly in the tournament and the JV teams had good records. I knew they had just built the field and stadium over the summer but I hadn't thought of what it would look like. The grandstand really was grand and there were two tunnels leading out under the stands. The scoreboard looked like it hadn't even been turned on yet it was so new looking and the press box was glass covered and shiny. I didn't see Andy so I went onto the field. It felt wonderful. Even though I had no ball or teammates with me I felt better. I looked up at the lights. They were big and looked like they could put out nice lights.

"Beautiful isn't it?" A voice said, scaring the daylights out of me. I jumped and looked around. Andy was coming up from one of the tunnels. "But you haven't even seen the inside of this place."

I followed him back to where he had come from. The tunnel opened up to a large hallway. There were two doors across from each other that had 'Men' and 'Women' on them in gold plates. Further down the hallway there was a lounging area with couches and a fridge and other kitchen amenities. There was another door that Andy was standing near. He waved me over and opened the door to reveal a large office that also had soccer balls and uniforms. It was so neat and tidy and the soccer balls smelled brand new.

We left the storage room and Andy sat down on a couch in the lounge area.

"Am I going to get you fired?" I blurted out, still standing at the door.

"Come sit down," he insisted and patted the space on the couch. I wearily walked over and sat on the opposite side of the couch, leaving a cushion between us. "I'm more worried about you."

I looked at him incredulously. "Why?"

"Well, I've had eight years to think about this moment. You had six days," he said, looking at me with passionate eyes.

"Eight years? So you're 22?" I inquired.

"Yeah, I just turned 22 a month ago."

"I don't know how to do this?" I admitted. He smiled.

"Do what?"

"This whole soul mate thing. I didn't even want one right now." I had never told anyone that, not even Spencer. My hand covered my mouth. I didn't mean that against him and I'm sure he thought I did. "I didn't-"

"No, I understand. I didn't get my TiMER until college."

"How did you wait so long?"

"I'm from Hollis, which is sixteen hours from here. My hometown didn't believe in the TiMER. I grew up thinking differently from the philosophy. I believed in soul mates, but I was taught you learned who this person was through trial-and-error. And when I came to Sarthe University it seemed everyone had one. So I got one because I… well I wanted one. I can't imagine being forced to have one. I understand."

I smiled at him. It looked like what they said about this whole soul mate thing was true. He was too good to be true.

"What? Why are you smiling at me like that?" he asked after a moment. I shrugged. I really didn't know what to tell him there.

"My parents are going to berate me from the moment I get home about who my soul mate is. Luckily I don't have any siblings who will tell them before I do, but I still have to tell them. And I don't know how," I finally said to him. He frowned and looked at his watch.

"I have to tell you something," he admitted with a painful look in his face. "The principal and vice principal talked to me shortly after you left my classroom. They think it's best if all of us meet, today if possible, in their office. They don't really know how to deal with this and I don't know what they are going to say, but they wanted me to tell you."

I stared at him with big eyes. Would I be in trouble? Would he be in trouble? What would happen? How would my mom take it?

"Well," I started, searching for words. "My mom can very easily meet today, but my dad is a doctor and is working an ER shift today into late tonight."

"I guess we should go tell Mark, I mean Mr. Harris this," he said and stood up. He reached out his hand to help me up. His hand was warm as I took it and he lifted me up. I lost my balance and fell into him.

"Sorry," we both said and started laughing. Andy's arm was around me. I looked up at him and realized how close I was to him. My face turned deep red and I backed up, not letting go of his hand.

"Maybe walking down the hall isn't the best yet," I said and looked at our hands. He let go slowly and looked at me with a half smile. His half smile seemed like it was his signature face. I was okay with that because it didn't look too bad.

The walk to the principals felt like the longest walk in the world. People were staring at us, whispering and pointing. I kept my head down and kept walking though, I didn't want people to have more of a reason to talk.

The principal was a short stocky man who looked like he could be one of those creepy family doctors. The vice principal was a really tall woman with a skirt that made her seem even taller. They both had TiMERs that were dark, so they both had their soul mates. That had to work in our advantage. But it wasn't fair to make any kind of decisions or do anything because I didn't even really know my soul mate yet.

My mother came and entered the office with a worried face. "Kaylee, are you in trouble already? What is this about?" She hadn't even noticed my TiMER yet. But I was sure that was going to be cleared up very soon.

"Mrs. Parker, I'm sorry to disturb you on the first day of school, but I can ensure you that your daughter is not in trouble. She has caused quite a disturbance today though. It sure has been an interesting day for your daughter I'm sure," the principal said with a cold straight face. There were no emotions in his voice. My mother looked at me and then at the principal.

"Your daughter's TiMER went off today in her gym class," the assistant principal started. "And so did Andrew Jackson's." My mother let out an involuntary laugh and then looked at Andy.

"Oh wait, are you-"

"I go by Andy," Andy corrected with a frown.

"Are you-"

"The problem here is that mister Jackson is the gym teacher here… not to mention the JV soccer coach," the assistant principal finished. My mom's mouth dropped. Yeah, that was my response too.

Apparently this was a rare occasion, and everyone was at a loss about what to do about it. The room was deathly silent for a moment.

"There must be a mistake here," my mom responded after a minute. I involuntarily let an _ouch _escape my mouth. Andy's lips twitched into a small smirk before falling. I hadn't meant to, it just seemed like that was an insult.

"Is that possible?" the assistant principal asked, ignoring my outburst.

"I- I'm not sure. My brother is a TiMER surgeon, he would know," mom said, searching for words.

"When is the soonest you can find this out?" was the next question.

"This afternoon. Kaylee, we are done here. Go to the car. I will meet you there," my mom responded without even looking at me. Didn't I get any say in this? This was my TiMER after all. I suddenly felt really angry and stormed off with no intentions of going to the car.


	4. A mistake, is that possible?

Here's the new chapter!

* * *

I ran blindly for a moment and then stopped. I hadn't been to this part of the school yet. I had no idea where I was. There had been too many turns down different hallways and I had even run down a flight of stairs. The school wasn't huge but not having been to all parts of it before was surely to leave me a little scared.

I kept walking forward though, knowing eventually I'd find my way somewhere. The school was finite (and if I remember correctly a square) so eventually there would be an outside or a sign or something to indicate I could find my way around.

It was eerie in the school with no one in it. I hadn't noticed how the walls had paint chipping and fading away. The lockers looked beat up and the floor had years and years of wear and tear on it. My footsteps echoed, a reminder that I was the only one in the hallway. I probably wouldn't get to see this side of the school with people in it. I didn't know what was going to happen but it didn't look good. They probably wouldn't let me go to school here. I didn't know if they could do that but I didn't see how it was possible that we could all act like nothing happened.

I'd never heard of people NOT getting together with their soul mates. I didn't know anyone who had met their soul mate right away but I was sure they still got together. But I didn't see that happening here. It's not that I didn't like Andy, I was sure I could like him given time, but I didn't think anyone would let that happen. I'd be sheltered away from him as if he had an infectious disease. I probably wouldn't even be allowed to talk to him. I kind of wanted to talk to him, to see what he thought of all of this. Whatever 'this' was.

There was a sign at the end of the hallway on the exit door that was coming into view. I vaguely remembered the door and ran up to it. Sure enough, off in the distance, stood the stadium. I knew where I was! So like any rational person who was running from people and finally knew where they were, I went out the door and ran down to the stadium.

There was a sense of familiarity and comfort once I was on the pitch that made it easier to breathe. It smelled different from the rest of the school. Silently I walked down the home side tunnel and turned on the lights. I collapsed on the couch I had been sitting on not too long ago. If I could stay hidden here forever I'd be okay. There was nothing to worry about down here. It was just me and the noise of the air conditioning.

I pulled my knees up to my chest. My head rested on my knees and I closed my eyes. I needed to just rest them. Resting my eyes would be the best for everything. Everything would be fine if I just closed my eyes.

A hand touching my arm jolted me awake. I hadn't realized I had fallen asleep. I wasn't sure how long it had been. I looked up and saw Andy's concerned face looking back at me.

"I sort of knew you'd be down here," he said after a moment, sitting next to me on the couch. I buried my head back in my knees and closed my eyes. "You have a habit of running from things ya know. But uh anyway, They are looking for you, your mom and them. Even have the school's police officer looking."

My eyes widened and I looked up at him. "Am I in trouble?" I quietly asked.

A chuckle escaped Andy and then he frowned. "Oh, you were serious. No, I don't think you're in trouble."

"They seemed pretty upset earlier. It's my fault."

"How on earth is it your fault?"

"I got the TiMER six days ago."

"Did you want to get the TiMER?"

"Not really," I admitted. I was expecting his face to fall a little or some kind of disappointment but he smiled a little.

"So it was your parents' idea?" He asked. I nodded. "Then it is not your fault at all. It's not that they were upset… just, confused. I'm pretty sure they haven't had to deal with anything like this before."

"I can't help that!"

"No one said you could. They're just looking out for you."

"And what about you? Why aren't they looking out for you?"

"Because I'm an adult. I can look after myself. You, on the other hand, are not."

"What do they think you're some kind of perv? Because you don't seem like one."

He laughed and then was silent for a moment. "If you had heard today that a student's TiMER went off, it wasn't yours, and a teacher's also went off what would you think?"

"Probably that it's super weird and a little creepy," I admitted and looked away. "Not that I think this is creepy. I just- I think- I don't know what to think."

"It's-" he started to say.

"No, let me finish," I interrupted. "I've seen plenty of people who get their TiMER and it's years before they meet their 'one.' My mom had a friend who met theirs in a couple days but she wasn't fourteen. I've never heard this happening. And I surely haven't heard such the age difference. It's not that I'm opposed to it, I'm just still getting used to the fact that guys are cute. And now I'm about to be forced into a belief that I can't like my soul mate. Or that this is a mistake and that you really aren't my soul mate. And it's shitty. Why can't my soul mate just be Spencer?"

It was a moment before Andy spoke. "The guy that stood up for you in class today?" I nodded. "And how do you know they are going to tell you that you can't like me?"

"I know my mom," I simply stated.

"Speaking of which, I really should take you to them," he said softly. It was obvious that wasn't a favorable action.

We walked to the parking lot in silence. Andy's hand was guiding me at the small of my back. It was a reassuring gesture.

His hand dropped to his side before I knew why. I saw my mom a second later and my confusion went away. She ran up to me and gave me a huge hug, smothering me.

"I had no idea where you were. We were worried someone had taken you. Thank god you are okay," she went on, not letting me go.

"I found her in the soccer stadium," Andy said over my mother's babbling. She told him thank you and ushered me away. I didn't even get to say goodbye.

We rode in the car in silence. I thought we were going home until we turned down a street too early. I looked at my mom but before I could speak she started talking. "We're going to your uncle's office to see if there could be some type of mistake here. I've already called him, he's expecting us." All I could do was sigh and comply. It's not like I could jump out of the moving car or anything.

I couldn't quite understand why my mother wanted this to be a mistake so bad. I got that he was a lot older, and a teacher of mine, but he seemed like an okay guy. She wasn't giving him a chance. It wasn't fair. But I couldn't vocalize that. She'd surely chastise me and tell me I'm just wrong.

When we arrived at the office the receptionist pointed us back to his personal office where my uncle was seated.

"Beth, Kaylee! What can I help you with? Has there been a problem with Kaylee's TiMER? It didn't go blank did it?" My uncle asked in a concerned voice. I wondered what would make the TiMER go blank.

"There must be a mistake," my mother prompted.

"What's wrong?" my uncle asked.

"The man whose TiMER matched her is in fact a man," she started. "He's her gym teacher and soccer coach. This can't be right. He must be thirty or something. Surely it's a malfunction right?"

My uncle furrowed his brow and pursed his lips. There was a moment of silence. "I've heard of cases of age difference before. TiMERs have stopped working before, their partner has taken theirs off or died before meeting them, it has shorted out, but I haven't heard of it being a mistake. However, I can run some tests to make sure. I will need to have the other person present though."

"We can make that happen tomorrow," I mother said in a stern voice. My uncle looked a little scared to be honest.

"After school tomorrow then?" My uncle questioned, pulling out his phone to jot it down. My mother nodded and looked at me. I sat unmoving. My voice didn't matter in this case, so I wasn't sure why she was looking at me. "So tomorrow you will attend school and tell Mr. Jackson that he is to join us here after school is out. We will figure this out, don't worry."

I wasn't worried. But I wasn't going to tell her that.

I went to my room immediately after getting home. I wasn't hungry for dinner and I didn't want to talk to my mom about anything. She would only speak for me. I would rather sit in a dark room, so that's what I was going to do.

A tap on my window interrupted me after a little while. I looked up to see Spencer standing outside trying to find me in the room. I let him in and returned to my bed.

"I've been suspended. On my first day of high school. My parents are pissed," he announced, flopping onto my bed. I said nothing. "We both have had an interesting first day."

"Sure," I mumbled.

"So what happened after I left? What's happening now?" he questioned.

I told him all about talking to the assistant principal and my mom and then running and getting lost and going to the stadium and then Andy finding me and then going to my uncles office and everything in-between. When I was finished I was out of breath and Spencer was just staring at me with wide eyes.

"Well fuck," he whispered out. I nodded. "So what do you think of this Andy guy?"

I shrugged. "He seems like a nice guy. He's 22. I find him attractive. But…"

"But he's your teacher," Spencer finished. I nodded. "He's definitely strong. I couldn't get out of his grip. But that's about all I know about him. If you think he's a good guy than I'll trust that until I see otherwise."

"Really?" I asked, skeptical. He was taking this exceptionally well.

"It's the TiMER, it has to be right," he replied with a smile.

It's such a weird concept that everyone trusts the TiMER so much, in my opinion. I don't know how it works exactly, but there's something about hormones and them matching the soul mate. At least that's what everyone says. That's what we're taught to believe.

Years, and years ago there was an uprising about the inaccuracy of the TiMER and how they took steps to make it more precise and accurate. It's one of the Internet wars that is taught in history. It's fascinating to hear the side of the people who dated and married people and then got the TiMER only to find out it wasn't the person they were with. Divorces happened and people remarried their one. There was also talk about people getting fed up with their TiMERs and ripping them out. Some died because of the blood loss, but most were okay. They just lost something to do with the love hormone, or something like that. History never was my strong point, but I tried to pay attention to the TiMER things.

"It doesn't bother you that he's 22 and I'm 14?" I asked.

Spencer shook his head. "That's not for me to be bothered by."

People are so conditioned by the TiMER that younger generations aren't bothered by who the person is, just that they are there. I wasn't sure whether to be troubled by that, or relieved by it.

When I woke up in the morning my head was pounding terribly. Maybe I could skip out on school today. Maybe my mom could talk to Andy for me and I'd just slink in the shadows. I sat up at the thought of that. My mom talking to Andy was NOT a good idea. What about my father? My mother would have told him by now about it. He would know. I didn't know what he thought. But I was sure he was down at breakfast with mom. That would make things awkward.

I slinked quietly to the kitchen and peaked around the corner before going in. Dad was reading the newspaper and drinking coffee while mom was sitting by her laptop also drinking coffee. Not a word was being discussed between the two. I wasn't sure what to make about that.

"Kaylee, I know you're around the corner," my mom mumbled, not even looking up.

"How did you know that?" I asked astonished as I entered the kitchen.

"She's a mom, she knows everything kiddo," my dad piped in, dropping his paper down. A smile broke across his face as he looked at me. "How did your first day of school go yesterday? Tonight, we'll do something special since I don't have to work."

I glanced at my mom. Had she not told him anything? Did he know but wanted to hear it from me? I was confused. I sat down and looked at my cereal as if it had the answers. It didn't, but I could wish it did right?

"It was an adventure," I muttered out as I tried to eat. Dad looked at me as if to say 'go on.' "Spencer got into a fight because Brandon Tyler made fun of me. He's suspended."

"Spencer or Brandon?" my dad asked.

"Both."

"What happened for that to happen?" I was sure he knew, he was just getting me to say it aloud. I didn't want to say it in front of my mom. Couldn't she leave or something?

"My TiMER went off," I replied softly.

"Did it?" he asked as if he didn't know. He knew.

"Yeah. And it turned out to be an unexpected event. Not because of it going off but because of who it went off with. Because you see the guy that it went off with is eight years older and in a higher position than I am, so it puts everyone in a weird position of not knowing what to do."

"Oh, and what do you think about it?"

"I definitely don't think I want to be romantic with him right now by any means, but I need to get to know him right? He is my soul mate, according to the TiMER."

There was silence for a minute. I stared at my cereal and shoved more of it into my mouth.

"When do I get to meet him?" dad asked after a moment. I about choked on my cereal.

"Rick, honey. I believe there's been a mistake, and we're having both her and the man tested to see what has happened. I don't think meeting him is necessary," my mom butted in. I was wondering how long it would take before she said something.

"TiMER, wrong?" dad started. "That's preposterous. You and I are six years apart. That's only two less. We aren't a mistake right? How could the TiMER be wrong?"

My dad was a firm believer of the TiMER no matter what. That was just the way it was.

"We aren't discussing this until after this afternoon is over," my mom quickly replied and picked up her bag. She worked for real-estate and had an open house today, so the bag was filled with info about the house she was trying to sell. She guarded that with her life.

"I'll pick up Kaylee from school and take her and..."

"Andy," I said.

"Her and Andy to Bruce's office. Don't you worry about it," dad commanded and stood up himself. He went over to mom and kissed her. I made a face and shoved down the rest of my cereal.

"Come on Kaylee, you'll be late if you don't hurry," mom prompted and started making her way to the door. I threw my bowl in the sink and rushed out with her, not saying a word. It had hit me that I was about to return back to school: the place where everyone would now know that Andy was my soul mate… and my teacher.

* * *

A/n: summer is now here, so you'd think I'd have more time for this. Unfortunately due to a summer class I'm taking (i know, ew, summer school) and the spontaneous happenings of summer we'll see how it pans out. Hopefully more often there will be new chapter.

As always tell me your thoughts about how it's going. What you like, what you could see improved.


	5. Here comes day two, ready or not

_The TiMER itself doesn't belong to me, but any idea you don't recognize I gladly take credit for._

* * *

"Well… Uh, hey," he finally said a moment later to the whole class. He walked completely in the room and stood at the front of the class. Everyone had filled in the bleachers behind Spencer and me. "I'm Mr. Jackson, you can call me coach Jackson since I'm the JV men and women soccer coach or you can just call me Jackson, and I'll be your teacher this year for gym."

"More than that for some of us," someone snickered near the back.

"Excuse me?" Mr. Jackson said, stopping his introduction.

"You heard me," the kid answered in a snide tone. I turned to look. It was Brandon Tyler. Why he had to be in my gym class was beyond me, but there he was. And there he was continuing to make my life worse.

"Brandon shut up," Spencer barked. In a couple leaps Brandon was down near him, egging him on.

"Make me little girl," Brandon growled back, getting closer to his face. Spencer stood up and closed the short gap between them.

"Boys!" Mr. Jackson yelled. I pulled at Spencer's arm but he pushed me off. "Both of you sit down now!" They weren't listening to Mr. Jackson though.

"I am NOT a little girl and I am sick and tired of your bullshit Brandon," Spencer spit out, purposefully spitting on Brandon. Brandon retaliated by punching him in the face. Spencer barely flinched and returned a punch and then kneed him. Mr. Jackson advanced on the situation and pulled Spencer away from Brandon. Brandon followed and tried to attack Spencer through Mr. Jackson but was stopped when Mr. Jackson put his arm up and separated the two. He was stronger than he looked. Mr. Jackson was about a third of the size of Brandon and was shorter than Spencer.

"Both of you stop this now. Sit down while I call someone to get both of you," Mr. Jackson said as he glared at both Spencer and Brandon.

"Someone will have to come get you too, after they find out what happened when you entered class," Brandon said, laughing. Mr. Jackson paused for a moment, looking scared for a second but then shook his head and continued to dial someone on the phone that on the wall.

I stood up. "Excuse me…" Mr. Jackson started, not knowing my name.

"Kaylee," I whispered as I started walking to the door.

"Excuse me Kaylee, please stop walking to the door. Kaylee! Sorry, I-" Mr. Jackson continued into the phone. I had to get out of there though. There was no one in the halls as I made my way to the bathroom. I pushed open the door and walked to the nearest stall and locked the door. Not only did I find the guy, but also the guy was my teacher. How could something like this happen? No one warned me about this. No one told me the guy might be nine or ten years older than me… and he was my teacher. There was no way I could go back into that room. They would all stare at me. He would stare at me. I couldn't face any of them. It made it ten times worse that this guy would be my soccer coach. I wanted to play so bad but I couldn't if He was there. That would cause problems.

Someone entered the bathroom and I realized I had been crying. I sniffled and got quiet. It was someone with big steps. It was probably just an upper-classman. The footsteps seemed to be getting closer and closer and then they stopped.

"Kaylee?" A voice asked. I didn't recognize the voice. "Are you in there?" There was a knock on my stall. I opened the door. The voice belonged to Mr. Jackson.

"What are you doing in the girls' bathroom?" was all I could manage to say. He laughed at me.

"You rushed out the gym and these bathroom doors take a while to close, so I followed to make sure you are okay. Luckily Mrs. Archer was walking by the room and I asked if she could watch the class for a moment," he stammered out with a half smile.

"Why?" I whispered, crossing my arms.

"Well… I, uh," he stuttered and looked down at his arm. His TiMER had gone dark.

"I don't even know your name," I admitted, trying to be strong.

"Andy," he said and put out his hand. I shook it and laughed.

"As in Andrew? Andrew Jackson? What on earth were your parents thinking?" I said, unable to control my laughter.

He rolled his eyes. "Normally people don't point that out, and when they do I just say that's why I go by Andy. Will you come out of this stall… I don't want anyone to see me in here."

"Because you're my teacher?"

"Because I'm a guy and this is the girls' bathroom."

"Oh."

He outstretched his hand and pulled me out of the small stall. I quickly let go of his hand but smiled weakly at him as we walked out of the bathroom and back to the classroom. The class was silent when we entered and everyone, included Mrs. Archer, stopped doing whatever they were doing and stared at us. Spencer and Brandon were nowhere to be found.

"Hopefully the rest of the year won't be as crazy as the first ten minutes," Andy/ Mr. Jackson laughed and went over to talk to Mrs. Archer. The class turned their attention to me as I sat back down in the front row of bleachers. I didn't want to talk to anyone and I wasn't ready for anyone's questions. It was going to be a long year.

Before the bell rang I pulled out a piece of paper from the back of my notebook. "I'll come to your office after school" I wrote and signed my name. On my way out of the room I handed it to Andy. He read it and nodded, trying not to smile. It was hard fighting my own, considering how cute he was. He fact that he was wearing a dark green polo with khaki shorts made him look like a kid wanting to grow up too fast and added to the cuteness.

As students piled out of classrooms the halls got louder and louder and it was making my head hurt. Or maybe my head was hurting before then but either way it didn't feel good. It seemed as if everyone was staring at me, but that was impossible because surely not everyone could know already. Lexi hadn't been in the class.

A tap on my shoulder made me jump. "So was he cute?" Hannah asked, catching up to walk beside me.

"Who?" I asked, a little out of it.

"The new soccer coach, was he your gym teacher?" She exclaimed in a little louder than a whisper.

"Shhh!" I hissed, looking around as I did so.

"What?" she asked innocently. She looked around with a confused face. I looked down at my arm and then back at Hannah.

"YOU FOUND HIM!? WHERE IS HE?" She yelled in excitement.

"Sh!" I insisted. "Not so loud… The soccer coach is Him." Her mouth dropped open. If I hadn't have dragged her along with me she would have held up traffic in the hallway.

"But he must be like 30," she protested once we were at my locker. I was struggling to get it open. Spencer had opened it for me this morning and obviously he couldn't do that now.

"I think he's 23," I retorted.

"Still! You're 14. That's strange. Maybe there's a mistake," she pressed.

I ignored her and finally got my locker open. My books went into it and I left Hannah standing at my locker. What if she was right? What if it was a mistake? Could that be possible? This day was one big ball of confusion.

When I saw Lexi in my next class she bee lined straight to my desk.

"Shut. Up." She said and sat down in some kid named Frank Monsieur's seat.

"That's not your seat," I claimed, knowing that's not why she sat down.

"Mr. Jackson? That is too much. Tell me the rumors aren't true? Did Spencer really fight Brandon Tyler? And Mr. Jackson ran after you, did something happen? Tell me!" I was about to open my mouth to tell her to go away when the bell rang. The kid I assumed was Frank tapped on Lexi's shoulder. She gave me the _we'll talk later _eyes and went to sit down. I put my head on my desk.

When the bell rang to dismiss us for the day Lexi immediately came to my side.

"Spill," she said and stared at me. So I told her everything. It was bound to be the talk of the school soon if not already, so it was best if I told my side before things got too crazy. Lexi remained quiet for the whole story. "He can't get fired for this can he? I mean, you two are soul mates. The TiMER says so. Our whole staff has them. And TiMERs don't lie. You said yourself he's really cute and you never think people are cute. Woah. How are you going to tell your parents?"

I froze. My parents. I'd forgotten about them. There was no way I could hide it from them. The moment I got home they would be asking all about him and when they could meet him. They would want to meet him today. Mom would be waiting at home for me. Dad wouldn't get home from the hospital until late, he was working an ER shift today, but he would insist on meeting the guy. I didn't know what to do. Maybe Andy would.

I told Lexi I was going to go talk to him and for her to find Spencer and not wait for me. She gave me a wink as she left. All I could do was groan.

When I entered came to his office the door was cracked open. I knocked and then entered his office. There was no one there. A sign on his desk was addressed to me. "On the pitch, come over when you get this. Andy." His handwriting was elegant. That was definitely something I wanted in a guy.

I hadn't ever been to the soccer stadium in the high school before so when I walked onto the pitch I was awe struck. Most high schools centered around football, but mine was all about soccer. Both varsity teams were constantly in the tournament and the JV teams had good records. I knew they had just built the field and stadium over the summer but I hadn't thought of what it would look like. The grandstand really was grand and there were two tunnels leading out under the stands. The scoreboard looked like it hadn't even been turned on yet it was so new looking and the press box was glass covered and shiny. I didn't see Andy so I went onto the field. It felt wonderful. Even though I had no ball or teammates with me I felt better. I looked up at the lights. They were big and looked like they could put out nice lights.

"Beautiful isn't it?" A voice said, scaring the daylights out of me. I jumped and looked around. Andy was coming up from one of the tunnels. "But you haven't even seen the inside of this place."

I followed him back to where he had come from. The tunnel opened up to a large hallway. There were two doors across from each other that had 'Men' and 'Women' on them in gold plates. Further down the hallway there was a lounging area with couches and a fridge and other kitchen amenities. There was another door that Andy was standing near. He waved me over and opened the door to reveal a large office that also had soccer balls and uniforms. It was so neat and tidy and the soccer balls smelled brand new.

We left the storage room and Andy sat down on a couch in the lounge area.

"Am I going to get you fired?" I blurted out, still standing at the door.

"Come sit down," he insisted and patted the space on the couch. I wearily walked over and sat on the opposite side of the couch, leaving a cushion between us. "I'm more worried about you."

I looked at him incredulously. "Why?"

"Well, I've had eight years to think about this moment. You had six days," he said, looking at me with passionate eyes.

"Eight years? So you're 22?" I inquired.

"Yeah, I just turned 22 a month ago."

"I don't know how to do this?" I admitted. He smiled.

"Do what?"

"This whole soul mate thing. I didn't even want one right now." I had never told anyone that, not even Spencer. My hand covered my mouth. I didn't mean that against him and I'm sure he thought I did. "I didn't-"

"No, I understand. I didn't get my TiMER until college."

"How did you wait so long?"

"I'm from Hollis, which is sixteen hours from here. My hometown didn't believe in the TiMER. I grew up thinking differently from the philosophy. I believed in soul mates, but I was taught you learned who this person was through trial-and-error. And when I came to Sarthe University it seemed everyone had one. So I got one because I… well I wanted one. I can't imagine being forced to have one. I understand."

I smiled at him. It looked like what they said about this whole soul mate thing was true. He was too good to be true.

"What? Why are you smiling at me like that?" he asked after a moment. I shrugged. I really didn't know what to tell him there.

"My parents are going to berate me from the moment I get home about who my soul mate is. Luckily I don't have any siblings who will tell them before I do, but I still have to tell them. And I don't know how," I finally said to him. He frowned and looked at his watch.

"I have to tell you something," he admitted with a painful look in his face. "The principal and vice principal talked to me shortly after you left my classroom. They think it's best if all of us meet, today if possible, in their office. They don't really know how to deal with this and I don't know what they are going to say, but they wanted me to tell you."

I stared at him with big eyes. Would I be in trouble? Would he be in trouble? What would happen? How would my mom take it?

"Well," I started, searching for words. "My mom can very easily meet today, but my dad is a doctor and is working an ER shift today into late tonight."

"I guess we should go tell Mark, I mean Mr. Harris this," he said and stood up. He reached out his hand to help me up. His hand was warm as I took it and he lifted me up. I lost my balance and fell into him.

"Sorry," we both said and started laughing. Andy's arm was around me. I looked up at him and realized how close I was to him. My face turned deep red and I backed up, not letting go of his hand.

"Maybe walking down the hall isn't the best yet," I said and looked at our hands. He let go slowly and looked at me with a half smile. His half smile seemed like it was his signature face. I was okay with that because it didn't look too bad.

The walk to the principals felt like the longest walk in the world. People were staring at us, whispering and pointing. I kept my head down and kept walking though, I didn't want people to have more of a reason to talk.

The principal was a short stocky man who looked like he could be one of those creepy family doctors. The vice principal was a really tall woman with a skirt that made her seem even taller. They both had TiMERs that were dark, so they both had their soul mates. That had to work in our advantage. But it wasn't fair to make any kind of decisions or do anything because I didn't even really know my soul mate yet.

My mother came and entered the office with a worried face. "Kaylee, are you in trouble already? What is this about?" She hadn't even noticed my TiMER yet. But I was sure that was going to be cleared up very soon.

"Mrs. Parker, I'm sorry to disturb you on the first day of school, but I can ensure you that your daughter is not in trouble. She has caused quite a disturbance today though. It sure has been an interesting day for your daughter I'm sure," the principal said with a cold straight face. There were no emotions in his voice. My mother looked at me and then at the principal.

"Your daughter's TiMER went off today in her gym class," the assistant principal started. "And so did Andrew Jackson's." My mother let out an involuntary laugh and then looked at Andy.

"Oh wait, are you-"

"I go by Andy," Andy corrected with a frown.

"Are you-"

"The problem here is that mister Jackson is the gym teacher here… not to mention the JV soccer coach," the assistant principal finished. My mom's mouth dropped. Yeah, that was my response too.

Apparently this was a rare occasion, and everyone was at a loss about what to do about it. The room was deathly silent for a moment.

"There must be a mistake here," my mom responded after a minute. I involuntarily let an _ouch _escape my mouth. Andy's lips twitched into a small smirk before falling. I hadn't meant to, it just seemed like that was an insult.

"Is that possible?" the assistant principal asked, ignoring my outburst.

"I- I'm not sure. My brother is a TiMER surgeon, he would know," mom said, searching for words.

"When is the soonest you can find this out?" was the next question.

"This afternoon. Kaylee, we are done here. Go to the car. I will meet you there," my mom responded without even looking at me. Didn't I get any say in this? This was my TiMER after all. I suddenly felt really angry and stormed off with no intentions of going to the car.


	6. Meet the dad

I thought maybe by ignoring him he'd eventually leave me alone. If someone ignored me I would eventually leaven him or her alone. I tuned out what he was saying, doodled on a piece of paper, counted the ceiling tiles, tapped my pencil to an invisible beat, did anything I could think of to pass time, but he kept trying to get my attention. He would tap me. When that didn't work he would _pst _me. After that he tossed paper into my lap. Then he whispered my name over and over. I gave up on remembering all of the countless attempts he did to get my attention.

After what felt like decades, the bell finally rang. Hannah tore off before even saying a word… leaving me with Collin. I would kill her later, if I was still alive myself.

"Great friend," Collin mumbled as I stood. I froze. "Oh, right, still ignoring me. Whatever."

He nailed it on the head, and I walked to the door in silence. As if I had predicted it, footsteps followed me to my locker. I really wasn't sure what he wanted, maybe just to creep me out? Collin stood leaned against the locker next to mine as I packed things in my book bag. He had that same cold look about him the whole time, but said nothing.

"Listen," I said while closing my locker. "I have a lot going on right now. Could you stop freaking me out so much? Can't you get the hint? What is it with you?"

He looked down at the ground, as if I had hurt him. That had been kind of mean, and that wasn't like me. Was I really feeling remorse for this creepy guy though?

"Excuse me for trying to be your friend, I'm not sure if you've noticed but I don't have that many of those and from the looks of it yours are dwindling down too," he muttered, still not looking at me. There was an edge to his voice that wasn't there before.

"You could at least do so nicer or less creepy or something," I replied.

"Fine. Let's start over. Hey, I'm Collin. I'm a junior and you look like you could use a friend," he said sincerely and tried to smile. It looked like he was in pain however, which made me laugh. He obviously didn't smile much.

"I'm Kaylee. Yeah, I suppose another friend couldn't hurt, if you stop being so creepy. Doesn't look like I'll be Miss popular. I do hate to run, but my dad is waiting outside I'm sure," I said.

"Well let me walk you out at least," Collin answered.

"No, that's okay," I tried saying but Collin didn't take no for an answer apparently. He dragged me out of the school and looked around for someone waiting that would look like my dad.

I spotted my dad's car before he did and was about to say something when Andy walked up. He looked at Collin with a weird look and then looked at me.

"Collin," Andy greeted with the weird look still prevalent. He didn't look angry or disgusted or anything… it was almost a curious _what are you doing with her _look, but surely Andy wasn't jealous about this… right?

"An- Jackson," Collin greeted back, returning a look to Andy that I couldn't quite understand. And had he stumbled and almost said Andy? What was that about?

"Is your dad here?" Andy asked, turning his attention away from Collin. I nodded and pointed to the white jaguar sitting across the way. "Then we shouldn't keep him waiting."

And with that he started walking away. The past few times I had talked to him he didn't act like he was in a constant rush, but at the moment that's exactly how he was acting. He didn't even say bye to Collin or even a head nod. It was really odd. I waved bye to Collin and jogged to catch up with Andy. "What was that about?" I asked him.

"Don't worry about it," Andy responded and flashed me a smile. I didn't press, but I would find out eventually. "Are you alright?"

I shrugged and told him about the behavior room occasion, leaving out that Collin was being a creep. Something told me that wouldn't be a good thing to mention. Andy playfully shook his head and told me I needed to stop finding trouble. He told me being in class was important. What a teacher thing to say. I was about to reply to him when I heard my dad's voice. He had the windows rolled down and a huge smile on his face.

"Kaylee! Hey! Been waiting on you like I said. You ready?" He asked and then looked over at Andy, glancing up and down at him before smiling. "Do you want to just ride with us? I can bring you back by the school. It's really no problem and seems like a waste of gas to have two cars."

Andy shrugged and climbed in the back seat as I climbed in the front. My dad instantly turned around and beamed at Andy.

"I'm Rick. It's really great to meet you Andy. I'm sorry our first meeting has to be something like this- my wife is just… well she… I'm sorry. I don't know how to make up for her behavior. Sometimes she acts irrational like this. But don't either of you say that I said that. I'd be sleeping in the guest bedroom for sure. Anyway, I hope this doesn't take long, I'm pretty hungry. I haven't eaten since about eleven. Had an early lunch. Hope you two are hungry because I thought we'd get something to eat afterwards. Your mom has that book club of hers tonight so it'll just be us. I want to get to know you Andy."

He talked the whole way to my uncle's office. My dad was worse than I was with nonstop talking. At least I knew where I got it. I just laughed silently and let him talk. It was nice to see him excited and I knew he'd have nothing but positive things to say.

I wasn't expecting to have my blood taken. When we got back in the room where they normally install the TiMER uncle Bruce told me he was taking tests and took out a needle. This wasn't something he did often, so he was going to check every possible thing it could be. He said a bunch of doctor jargon and also hooked up a little wire to both Andy and my TiMERs. He put a monitor like one at a hospital on our fingers and then attached two little plugs to our heads.

"This is just to check to make sure the TiMER took right to your body, even if they looked right when they were put in they could have shortened a little without it being known at the time," he responded, looking more at me than Andy. Andy looked fine and relaxed.

"Will it tell you that Andy is for sure the right one?" I asked. It looked like a lot of things just to be finding out one answer.

"That's what this wire is for," he replied, pointing at the one connected to our TiMERs. "I'm going to restart your TiMERs as soon as I know they are both acting normally. I want you to both look at each other when I do this. Immediately both of your TiMERs will go off if it is true. TiMERs aren't ever wrong. Maybe they malfunction on rare occasions, but they aren't wrong."

He was saying this as if he knew it was going to go off again just like it did before, that he knew Andy and I were meant to be even if the situation was a bit odd. I nodded and looked over at Andy. He smiled at me and with his free hand grabbed mine. It was a gentle touch. He was telling me it was okay. I could just tell.

My uncle started up the machine and after a minute or two our TiMERs beeped. He said that was normal, they were restarting. I guess that meant they were both working right. I had missed that part of the conversation if it was stated. Like I was told, I looked directly into Andy's eyes.

The chimes that occurred a few seconds later made me jump. It was the same charm I picked out about a week ago, the same charm that went off in the classroom; it was the piano and harp riff that I had loved so much. It reminded me that Andy had picked the same tone and that musically him and I were on the same page. I'd have to ask him about when he got his TiMER sometime. Andy's smile widened and I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. Was I relieved that it was real? Was I scared? I wasn't really sure. It was going to be a rough road ahead for the both of us… that I was sure of.

"Welcome to the family," my uncle nervously said with a half smile I would be the first kid of the family on my mom's side to have their soul mate so I'm sure my uncle just didn't know how to react. That or he was thinking what we all were: that my mom was going to have a cow when she found out. I pushed the thought out of my mind and forced a smile. On the other side of the room my dad looked really excited but somehow was staying quiet. That did make me feel a little better.

"Thanks," Andy replied and looked around. He looked at me with questioning eyes. All I could think about was how my mom was going to react.

We ate at a little diner down the road and my dad went back on his constant talking spree. He talked about how it was perfectly okay with all of this and that he didn't expect a wedding immediately (which I was relieved about because honestly I hadn't even thought about that yet.) He also reassured me that we would work something out with the school and get everything settled. There was a rule about students and teachers but there wasn't any rule involving TiMERs and that was going to be the problem. I had no idea how the administration would even begin to deal with this. It made my brain hurt. He talked about how mom would get over it eventually and for the millionth time said everything would work out.

Mainly Andy and I ate silently. Andy said something every now and then to answer my dad, but I'm not sure if I uttered a single word. We were at a booth that seemed a bit small so our legs were touching under the table. My mind was at war with itself. On one hand there was the thought that yes this man was my soul mate so one day we would share a lot together and that wouldn't be so bad. On the other hand he was my teacher and there would be favoritism whether we liked it or not and that would be bad. Also that he was considerably older than I was. That only bothered me because that would mean when we got old he'd be considerably old and inevitably I'd be alone in the end. I shocked myself with that thought. Never before had I thought about death or even getting old. That was weird. What on earth was going on with me?

It was hard to even think at all though, as I could feel the heat from his body so close to mine. If hormones really made it so hard to think like this I really didn't want them. I glanced over at Andy who was joking about something with my dad and couldn't help but smile. They were getting along really well. I knew my dad always wanted a son. Having me was hard for both my parents however; they barely were able to have me. And after countless miscarriages that made my second through fourth years of life different than most kids', the room next to mine slowly went from future nursery to guest room. So without a second kid I knew my dad always thought in the back of his head that he couldn't wait for his son-in-law to come around.

"We'll have you over for dinner real soon," my dad yelled out the window as Andy got out of the car. We were back at the school. All in all the evening had gone well. I wasn't sure what to think about that. I should be happy that him and my dad got along so well, shouldn't I? But if my dad was the only problem in this whole mess it wouldn't really be a mess now would it?

"Dad can I talk to Andy for a bit? I can walk home, it's just two blocks," I asked and gave my dad my puppy dog eyes.

"Of course kiddo," my dad said with a grin. I was almost shocked that he was letting me go off with this guy he just met today, that I had only known for two days, but the fact that he was my match cancelled out all of that I guess. My dad trusted that Andy wasn't some serial killer or anything. "But if you aren't home before dark I'll send out a search party. Let Andy drive you home. That way he knows where our house is. I'll see you at the house."

And with that I got out and caught up with Andy. He was parked around back so we had a little bit to walk. He smiled when I caught up with him and slowed down his pace. His hands were in his pockets and he was kicking a rock across the pavement with a lot of concentration.

"Your dad seems like a cool guy," he said after a moment. It didn't feel like a filler to kill the silence, it felt like he genuinely wanted to tell me that.

"Yeah, he is pretty great," I replied. "Too bad my mom can't be like him."

"Is it worrying you that much?" he asked and stopped walking. I diverted my eyes and shrugged. I shouldn't have said anything because I really didn't want to talk about it. He must have sensed this because he touched my arm to get my attention. When I looked up at him he said, "Hey, she will come around, because well unless you tell me to go I'll be around and she's your mom, she's not going anywhere either. I wouldn't let it worry you too much."

I half-smiled at him and sighed. It was easy for him to say that, he wasn't the one that had to be home with her. But nonetheless it was nice that he was trying to console me. I was okay with that.

When I didn't walk on with him he came back and put his arm around my shoulder and gave a squeeze. I forgot how strong he was and cold feel his muscles flex through his rolled up button up shirtsleeve. I wasn't really someone who was all into a muscular guy, but I wouldn't complain or anything. He gave me a look that said _You going to be alright? _I nodded and smiled as we walked on towards his car with his arm still around me.

We went through a closed gate that Andy had a key to. I didn't realize the faculty parking lot was gated off, but I guess it made sense. There were probably more than enough teachers that students didn't like. However now, there were no other cars in the parking lot. I wondered if Andy would be questioned to why his was still here but I didn't say anything. I figured it probably wasn't a huge deal. Then again no one probably even cared.

His car was a small silver sports car. I wasn't sure what kind of car it was. It wasn't flashy or really expensive looking but it was nice all the same. He noticed me staring at it and laughed.

"It's not much, but it was the first thing I bought after leaving home," he commented and unlocked the car.

"It's nice," I replied with a smile. He smirked at me and came to open my door. "Oh, a gentleman."

"That, or I just wanted an excuse to get closer to you," he stated with a grin. Instead of opening my door he put is arms around my waist and leaned against his car. "You have really pretty eyes."

I turned red and looked away from his gaze. Curse my fair skin for turning red at everything. "Thanks," I managed to say and looked back at him. His smile was really cute and he may think I have pretty eyes but his eyes were something to get lost in. They were brown, but a soft brown. Almost like a light golden or caramel.

"What?" he asked, pulling me a little closer. My hands were resting on his shoulders. I shrugged.

"I don't know what you're whatting," I simply answered.

"You were staring at me," he pointed out.

"Yeah, well you are the one with your arms around my waist. What should I look at, the sky?" I shot back with a grin. He shook his head and rolled his eyes. I looked up at the sky in amazement only making him laugh and pull me close enough to him that our chests were touching.

"I don't see you complaining," he growled. I could hear his heart beat and my own heart felt like it was beating so loud China could hear it. His chest rose and fell with his breathing and his smell, the vanilla and mint smell, was intoxicating. My thoughts were lost. There was something I wanted to tell him, but I didn't know what it was.

He cleared his throat, causing me to look back at him. I could see my reflection in his eyes. I didn't know if he was closing the distance between us or if I was moving in closer but our noses were touching. I was sure China could hear my heart beating by now.

* * *

a/n: so there's ch 6. I know, a cliff hanger. I'm sorrryyyyyy. I'm hoping to update once a week so Tuesday's will be the day to look out for. Or if you favorite/follow it you'll know immediately :P.

So what do you think about Collin and Andy's weird encounter? How do you like dear old dad? How do you think mom will react?

Favorite/follow/review you know the drill! Help me make the story better!


	7. Mom decides

_I don't own TiMER or anything in regards to that idea. The characters and story line are the only thing belonging to me. Enjoy!_

* * *

He went to move in closer, to kiss me, but I pushed away from him. My heart was beating really fast as I distanced myself from him. I pulled out of his arms and backed up. He looked hurt.

"What- are- are you okay?" he asked sounding really concerned.

"I'm sorry," I said in a small voice and crossed my arms across my chest. I took a deep breath in and looked at the ground.

"What happened?" he asked.

"I- we shouldn't do this," I admitted, still not looking at him.

"What do you mean we shouldn't do this?" he asked between his teeth.

"You're my teacher."

"You're my soul mate."

"I know."

He didn't say anything after that and let me have my distance. We hadn't talked to the school yet. I couldn't just go kissing my teacher, even if he was my soul mate. This was all way too confusing. Obviously I wanted to kiss him but I knew I shouldn't. I mean, I probably would one day but I didn't think now was good.

"What's wrong then?" he asked after a minute. Of course he didn't get it.

"You could be fired because of me," I stated.

"I'm not going to get fired," he assured me. "You're worried about what's going to happen to me?"

I nodded. "I just. I don't think we should do anything yet," I managed to say.

He remained quiet for a minute and then motioned me to him with his hand. I obliged and he put his arms around me.

"I don't want to do anything that you don't want to, so just tell me if I'm going to far," he finally said. I buried my head into his chest and nodded. This in itself was probably too far but it felt better to hug him. I didn't want that to have to end, even if it should.

After Andy dropped me off at my house I jumped onto my couch next to dad and elbowed him in the arm. He grinned and elbowed me back.

"How goes it kiddo?" he asked after I settled down next to him.

"Not bad," I responded and looked at what he was watching. It was something about these guys in a pawnshop, and by the look of it they were really ripping off people. Why my dad watched something like that is beyond me but he seemed pretty interested in it. If I asked why he watched it he probably would have said something about it being mindless and he uses his mind enough as it is. So I let it go.

"I like Andy," he said after a minute. That was obvious though. It probably would be hard for my dad not to like someone.

"Yeah," I replied, not sure what else to say to that.

"He's older, so he probably already knows about certain… things. But I know your mom and I haven't had the chance to talk with you about… that," my dad started saying, looking very uncomfortable. It took me a moment to realize what he was trying to say. When it hit me, my mouth dropped.

"Uh, dad. I, um- you don't need to- I-" I started to say, not sure how to tell him I didn't want to have that talk. Sure I didn't know everything, but I'd figured out some things on my own and I didn't exactly want my dad to fill me in on the rest.

"No," my dad interrupted. "You do need to know. I know this isn't um… a great topic but it's okay. He's your soul mate, so you are going to share everything with him. Don't feel pressured to rush into things but I know your hormones are probably raging right now. I know when I was your age-"

"DAD!" I yelled. "Please stop. I get it. I know Andy and I will probably do it one day. I'm not ready right now and I don't know when I will be. It weirds me out right now, okay?"

My dad chuckled. "Why does it weird you out?"

"Because," I said and then paused. "He's my teacher."

"Is that really bothering you?" he questioned.

"Kind of. I mean, am I going to be able to go to school there still? What about soccer?"

"Hm. I don't know. I don't see why not. But we'll set up an appointment to talk about that."

I nodded and left the conversation at that. It was strange how it went from awkward to serious in three seconds but at the same time I was glad it did. It was nice getting that off my chest, and my dad was one of the better people to talk to about that.

Not long after our talk, we both turned our head's to the sound of the door opening. In stepped my mom, looking kind of cheerful, but not saying a word. My dad and I said hey simultaneously and turned back to the television. This didn't seem to be what she wanted, although I knew that and my dad probably did too, and before saying anything she stepped in front of the television and gave us a demanding look.

"Honey, I can't see the tv," my dad said in a sincere tone.

"I know," she replied and crossed her arms.

"He's my soul mate, there is no problem, and you're going to have to get used to it," I blurted out. It was better in my mind to get it all out like that instead of beating around the bush.

"Excuse me?" she spit out in a harsh tone. Although, everything about her recently seemed to be harsh so there was nothing new there.

But I knew she heard me well enough. I didn't stutter and while I was probably speaking fast I knew it was audible and clear enough. Instead of repeating myself I simply stood and walked towards my room. I really didn't want to hear her to berate on me or scold me for something I had no control over. She acted like it was my fault Andy was who he was.

She kept calling for me to stop and come back. Something about grounding me if I didn't, but really that didn't matter. I didn't even turn around before entering my room and closing my door. There was no need in slamming it, as I was sure she was expecting. Slamming it would only tell her I was mad, and I wasn't mad… I was just tired of the way she was acting about all of this.

I wanted to talk to Spencer. He'd make me feel better. He'd say something witty about the whole situation and make me laugh. But his room was dark. The blinds were down. He simply wasn't there. That wasn't what I was hoping for, but nothing I could do about it.

A knock on my door jolted me awake. I hadn't realized I'd fallen asleep. But I knew I was dreaming of running through the woods as a fox. The trees had been a blur but I knew where I was going. I had no fear of running into the trees or anything else. There was a rhythmic motion to me and I was one with the forest. My red coat shimmered in the sunlight coming down through the trees. I was a beautiful fox. I sighed, knowing that it was only a dream, and opened my eyes to my mom standing in the doorway.

"I didn't realize I'd woken you," she said blankly.

"It's okay," I replied, rubbing my eyes. Clearly it wasn't, but she was going to say whatever she wanted to anyway. "What's up?"

"We need to talk."

"About?"

There was a pause. I couldn't read her face. Maybe she was trying to find the words. But I couldn't tell. I really didn't want to hear anything she had to say though. My face probably gave that away.

"You're angry at me," she started and then paused again.

"Yeah," I calmly stated, biting my tongue. I really wanted to say _well duh _but I knew that would get us nowhere. So instead I just raised my eyebrows and waited for her to continue.

"You have to see it from my point of view. This man-"

"He has a name. It's Andy," I interjected.

"Yes, well, he is so much older than you. And he's your teacher. This makes me uncomfortable," she stated.

"I don't know why," I started. "Your not his soul mate."

She took a deep breath and started again. "While this is true, I'm looking out for you. I don't want him to take advantage of you or use his power of authority against you and pressure you into things just because your TiMER matches his."

I had to use every force in me not to explode on her. She was worried about him taking advantage of me? Was she serious? I couldn't believe her. I wanted to scream. I wanted to do something. But I sat still. I took a breath. I had to keep calm. Getting mad would only make things worse and that wasn't needed right now.

"So I've had a long talk with your father," she said after a moment. I almost smiled there. My dad liked Andy, so this would end well on my half. "And we've decided we are going to meet with the administration as soon as possible to discuss options about keeping you two appropriate during school. Until we do that, I will be sending you to school with a letter that you will hand over immediately to the principal stating that I am not allowing you to be in his classroom."

My mouth dropped. My dad agreed with this? How could he agree to that? I understood him agreeing to have a meeting, I mean him and I talked about that, but to stay out of his classroom? I actually enjoyed gym class. I didn't want to have to stay away from it. That's what I was excited for high school for. There was no way that was being taken away from me.

"Dad agreed to this?" I asked skeptically, trying to hold back my temper.

My mom froze for a minute and then started talking, "He didn't exactly like the part about staying out of the classroom, but it was decided that it would help you get picked on less."

I didn't care about getting picked on. That was going to happen no matter where I was. People were going to find ways to mess with me about this. Didn't my mom understand that? I really didn't want to argue with her so I simply turned away.

"I am taking you to school in the morning and walking with you to hand the letter that I write in," she said and then closed my door. I sighed and rolled my eyes. I didn't have a solution to this and it bugged me. It was out of my hands. There wasn't anything I could do.

The next morning my mom did exactly what she said she was going to and we sat down with the principal. He quickly looked over the paper and said that with such an abrupt situation as this there was no way to put me in another class so I would be put in study hall for the time being, which was held in the library. He went on to say that usually only upperclassmen had study hall and to not make a big deal of it because he didn't want other freshmen complaining to him. I didn't really care too much about it and nodded. Above all, I didn't want to cause a scene here so I kept my mouth shut and did what I was supposed to.

I spent most of the morning thinking about how Andy would react when he was given word that I wouldn't be in his class anymore. It would probably shock him. After all, it shocked me even if I should have seen it coming. I hoped he wouldn't think I did it after the incident with the almost kiss. I wasn't sure what he would be told, and that worried me. I had to come up with a plan somehow. I needed to be able to talk to him. Even if just long enough to tell that my mom had done all of this, and what she was planning on doing next. He had the right to hear it from me. My mom said she'd be waiting for me after school, so there really wasn't a chance to talk to him then. But I needed to talk with him. That kept repeating in my head, and I wasn't focusing on anything in class. There were bigger fish to fry.

At lunch I tried to avoid my friends, but Lexi corned me as I was walking the opposite direction.

"Where are you going?" she asked in a blunt tone. I just looked at her. "Our table is this way." She then decided to loop arms with me and force me to sit down with her. Everyone greeted me and went back to their conversations. I added a few things here and there and even tried eating some. I didn't feel hungry though and gave up that pretty quickly.

My eyes scanned the cafeteria for Andy. He was nowhere to be found. Where could he be? Why wasn't he in here eating with the other teachers? My fingers drummed on the table lightly as I continued searching. He wasn't in the line anywhere and he wasn't walking around. I was really starting to worry now.

An elbow to my side brought me back to the table. "Kaylee, are you even paying attention?" Lexi asked, giving me a concerned look. I raised my eyebrows at her. "I asked how things were going with Mr. Cutie teacher. Soooooo?"

"I've got to go," I announced and grabbed my things. If he wasn't in here I had to find him. I didn't know how I didn't think about that before. Lunchtime was the perfect time to talk to him. Unfortunately now I had to hunt him down.

I walked the halls and avoided looking at most people. The lunchroom and the theatre athletic part of the school were on opposite sides of the school, so that meant I had to walk through a lot of people to get there.

The doors to the section of the school where the classroom I wanted to go to was in my view when someone put an arm around me and brought me to a halt. My confusion turned to annoyance when I found out who it was.

"Not now Collin," I growled and pried his arm off me.

"Woah, woah, woah, Kaylee. You are going somewhere in a hurry and speeding through the halls. Don't you know there's no running in the hall?" he laughed and put his arm back around me.

"Seriously, now is not the time. I need to be somewhere before lunch ends," I pleaded.

"Lunch just started, you have plenty of time to get where you need to be," he insisted and grinned at me. He had that evil look going on again and this time it was doing nothing but annoying me.

"Well where I'm going will take up my time, so if you will kindly allow me to get along now, I will talk to you later," I said to him and glared, which only seemed to make him laugh more.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"None of your business."

"Sure it is. I'm your friend, and as your friend I have a right to know these things."

"None of my other friends know where I'm going so why should you?"

He paused for a minute. I honestly thought he was going to let me go. Almost. Then he started walking the opposite way that I wanted to go and dragged me along with him.

"I'll take you this way until you feel the need to let me know what you're up to, because I sense that it's up to no good," he laughed and pulled me along. He was bigger than me and made barely any efforts to hold me tightly. I struggled but couldn't get free. It looked like the only way I was ever going to get out of this was to tell him where I was going. If he reacted the way he had when he was around Andy yesterday, he probably wouldn't want to follow me.

Before I could say anything he stopped dead in his tracks, almost making me fall over. "Wait," he started slowly. "You were going to see Mr. Jackson weren't you?"

"I-well- you see-" I tried saying but he put up a hand.

"Now we're definitely not turning around and letting you go see him. Come on, let's go get me lunch," he chided and picked his step back up.

"What do you have against him?" I asked, hitting Collin in the side. "Did he fail you or something?"

Collin made a noise that sounded halfway between a laugh and a bark and stopped walking again. "Sure, let's go with that," he said and stared at me with his cold eyes. Now he was making me uncomfortable. He had a certain gift when it came to that.

"That didn't answer my question," I growled and glared at him.

"That's cute," he said in a sarcastic manner.

"What is?"

"You trying to be mad. You should practice that more. But ya know what! I'll let you go. Go tell Mr. Jackson whatever it is you need to tell him. And while you're at it, tell him Collin says he can go fuck himself. I'll talk to you later," he announced and let go of me. Before I could say anything else he took off towards the cafeteria and didn't look back. He disappeared around a corner and left me standing in the middle of the hallway.

I was zero steps closer to finding out what was going on between those two. Why the sudden change in letting me go? That made no sense at all. Even less then him wanting me to tell Andy to go fuck himself. That wasn't something just thrown out to a teacher that was disliked, there was a serious grudge there. And it seemed to be reciprocated, which normally wouldn't make any sense. Plenty of students hated teachers, but since when did teachers hate students? That just added to all of the things going on that was piling up. What else could go wrong?

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_a/n: Sorry for such the delay. I thought I had this chapter ready a couple days ago but I really didn't. Plus the 4th of July messed up my scheduling with everything. But! Here is ch 7._

_The growing tension between Kaylee and her mom as well as Collin and Andy is intense aye? Although, with Collin and Andy there is quite a bit unknown there. What do you think is the issue there? How will Andy react to the newest events happening? _

_Let me know what you guys think. Favorite, follow, review, the whole 9 yards :) Thanks!_


	8. The truth hurts, so lie instead

_I do not own the idea of the TiMER or any of that jazz. All characters and situations are straight from my mind though, what a crazy mind that is. Enjoy chapter 8!_

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When I finally made it to Andy's office his door was closed. The possibility of him not being in there never even crossed my mind. He wasn't in the cafeteria, so I assumed he was in his office. I decided to knock still, that was the only way to find out if he was there. After a moment of silence I knocked again, this time a little harder. It was possible that he hadn't heard the knock. I did have small hands after all. But even after my harder knock there was no answer and I knew that one was loud enough to be heard.

I almost gave up and went back to the lunchroom when one final idea came into my head. He was in the stadium, probably in the lounge. He wouldn't have any interruptions there so it was perfect if he was upset. It was all I had to go on at least, so I hoped I was right this time.

Not wanting to waste any time, I sprinted to the stadium. The pitch and bleachers were quiet and dark, but that didn't deter me. He probably wouldn't leave any lights on up here, which would be a dead giveaway to where he was.

I quickly made my way to the tunnel and travelled down the propped open hallway. There was light on where the lounge opened up! I almost cheered at that and made my way down the hall.

I was almost to lounge when I heard voices talking. At the moment I was hidden from whoever was talking in the room. After a second I realized it was the principal and Andy talking. I knew I shouldn't have been eavesdropping but I had a good hunch they were talking about me and not only was I curious but I found myself unable to move from where I was standing.

"…until further arrangements are made," the principal said. I hadn't heard what he'd said before that.

"Is she okay with it all?" Andy piped in. Their voices were soft and it was a strain to hear them but I think I was catching all their words correctly.

"She remained silent during the meeting this morning, so I could not really tell," the principal replied.

"Surely you caught her body language though, right?" Andy asked, this time there was a bit of strain in his voice.

"That's not for me to say. However it seems as if Mrs. Parker is adamant in keeping her daughter away from you. For the time being I am going to need you to respect her wishes. You can do that right?" the principal continued.

There was a silent moment. I wished I could have seen what was going on. What was Andy doing? Why wasn't he replying? I wanted to run in there and to make sure he was okay.

"And what happens if I can't?" Andy finally asked after a minute.

"I'm going to have to fire you," the principal responded. My mouth dropped. Fire him?

"Excuse me?" Andy asked. He sounded a bit angry.

"I don't want to risk this school, or you, getting in trouble. I'm not sure what Mrs. Parker is capable of. If she requests her daughter to not see you during school hours it is my job to make that happen. If it doesn't she may come back around with a restraining order or a lawsuit. I will not have my school have that kind of reputation," the principal said, almost yelling. There was an edge to his voice that made me assume his face was a bit red.

"And how do you feel about all this?" Andy bit back.

"It's out of my hands," the principal replied.

"That's not what I asked," Andy growled.

"Honestly, I think Mrs. Parker is over reacting. Yes I am a little worried that parents or members of the community will frown upon a student and teacher dating but in this day and age that's the old way of thinking. They will know your TiMER matches hers and accept it, or most people will. If Mrs. Parker weren't instructing me to do this I would just tell you to not make a huge deal about it and not let it affect your class or on the soccer field. I have no say so in what happens outside of this school, so if you see her then I cannot say anything. But I am sticking to my word, if I find out you and Ms. Parker are together on school grounds you will be fired. Do you understand that?" The principal asked. There was a moment of silence again. The silence was killing me. I couldn't see what was happening. And I didn't dare barge in there now.

"Yes sir," Andy said in a tone that sounded like his teeth were gritted.

"Very good. Now, there is about 30 minutes left in this lunch period. If you'll excuse me I have some things I need to tend to. Have a good rest of lunch," the principal said. My eyes got real wide. He was going to start coming this way! I had to get out of there. My feet didn't seem to want to move though. I could hear footsteps coming this way. I had to move. I couldn't be caught here.

Swiftly I ran back up the hallway, trying to be silent but trying to move as fast as I could. I knew if I left the tunnel I wouldn't find a place to hide in time, the pitch was simply too large. Instead, I darted into the girls' locker room and made sure to close the door quietly. The room was pitch dark and I couldn't see anything. My eyes were trying to adjust but I was moving too fast and it was too dark. I ran into something solid and almost cried out, but covered my mouth before I made a noise. Whatever I ran into was big and weighed more than I did, because it didn't seem to move at all. I moved my hands around whatever it was in attempt to find an edge and hide behind it.

When my eyes finally adjusted I saw that it was some type of table. And I had smacked right into the side of it.

I heard his footsteps get closer and closer and then fade away. He was humming something the whole way out and then I heard a door open and close.

I let out the breath I was holding and leaned my head against the podium. My side hurt where I ran into it and I was sure it was going to bruise. I winced as I stood, noting that it hurt quite a bit, but disregarded it and looked back doors leading out of the tunnel before heading down to the lounge. It was quiet, so I made my way down.

Andy was sitting at a table with one of his hands holding up his head, the other holding a fork that was sifting through a salad. He looked really distraught and hadn't noticed my entrance. He wasn't even eating the salad. That was one thing we both had in common, neither of us were hungry.

"Hey," I softly said, making him jerk his head up and stare at me with wide-open eye.

"What are you- you shouldn't- how did you-" he stammered and stood up.

"Calm down," I said and walked closer. "The principal didn't see me. I know I shouldn't be here. But I needed to talk to you."

The sat back down in his chair and made a huge sigh. "How did you know the principal was here?"

"I sorta kinda overheard a good part of your conversation with him," I admitted and looked down at my feet.

"What?!" he yelled. I knew he'd be angry. Eavesdropping was never okay. I should have left when I heard the principal talking.

"I'm sorry," I said softly. "I wanted to leave, but I couldn't move. I know you could get fired talking to me. And I'm really sorry. I'm sorry. I never wanted any of this to happen."

I heard Andy get up and walk over to me but I didn't look up from my feet. He was probably leaving the room so he didn't get fired. That was expected. I couldn't be mad at him. It was stupid even coming down here.

When I felt his arms around me I jumped. I wasn't expecting him to come hug me. What was he doing?

"Shhhh," he started. "Don't cry. It's okay. I know this isn't your fault. Please don't beat yourself up about this." I hadn't even realized I was crying. When did I start crying? I sniffled back a tear and looked up at him.

"Your locker room did a good job of that so I don't have to," I tried joking and sobbed a little bit. My side still hurt.

He dropped his arms and backed up. "What? What do you mean?" he asked with a concerned tone. I told him about running into the table and how my side hurt. His eyes widened and he looked down at the side I was pointing at.

I lifted up my shirt a little to reveal my side, which was indeed, really red and sore.

"You should probably ice that," Andy said after a minute. I shrugged and stared at my side. It would be fine and probably just bruise a little. "Don't shrug at me. I want you to go to the nurse and have her look at you."

"And tell her what, that I ran into a table in a dark locker room because I was running from the principal after I eavesdropped on him and my soulmate having a conversation about how I couldn't see my soulmate ever again?" I asked faster than I thought I could talk.

"Of course not," Andy said. "Tell her you were at lunch and ran into a table because you weren't looking where you were going."

I looked at him for a moment. "You came up with that really fast," I admitted.

He shrugged. "I do what I can. You should go though before lunch is over."

I nodded and started to leave. Andy grabbed my hand and spun me around.

"We'll figure this out," he said. "I don't know how yet, but don't worry about it. Be careful."

I frowned. "My mom is serious though, I don't think this is going to get better."

"Maybe not now, but we'll work through it," he stated and smiled at me. Before letting go of my hand he gave it a squeeze. I smiled back and took off in search of the nurse's office.

I had never been to the nurse's office so I wasn't sure exactly where I was going so I ended up aimlessly walking around until I made it to the main office. I walked in and asked the secretary where it was. She gave me easy directions and asked me if I was okay. Not wanting to get into the whole thing with her, I wasn't even sure if the lie was going to work, I told her I was. She seemed to be okay with my answer and sent me on my way. Maybe I could lie better than I thought.

There were three other kids waiting for the nurse when I got there. The door was closed so I assumed she was tending to someone and I sat down in an empty seat. The kids didn't look sick, but I supposed I didn't either and had to remind myself not everyone went to the nurse because they were sick.

"She's been in there for a little while," one of the kids said. I nodded and kept silent.

"I just want my meds, she needs to hurry," another one said. Again, I kept silent, not knowing how to respond to that. I'd never needed daily medicine so I wasn't sure what was wrong with the kid. He didn't look sick or like he needed any kind of medicine. "I have adhd."

He must have caught me staring at him and saying nothing. I nodded and let him return to whatever he was doing. He didn't seem like he had a behavior problem, but then again it was rare these days to NOT have some kind of behavior problem or ailment. Apparently 7 out of 10 kids needed some kind of medication to function normally throughout the whole day. I wasn't a doctor, but I'd heard my dad comment on it numerous times about how it seemed unnecessary. It wasn't really my place to say though, so I usually just nodded. I guessed I was pretty abnormal because I didn't take any medicine but my dad said I was just fine. So I was sticking with just fine.

After what felt like an eternity the other kids quickly went through and left and it was my turn. The nurse was a woman who could have been my grandma and looked really, really nice.

"What's the matter dear?" she asked after getting my information correct.

"During lunch I was walking to a table with my friends and not paying any attention and almost ran into someone. And when I moved to the side to not run into him, he was a big upperclassman, I ran into a table pretty hard and it hurts and is red. So my friends said I should come see you," I said really fast and then smiled. I pulled my shirt up to show her and she pursed her lips and nodded.

"Good thing you did," she commented. "This will probably bruise. It looks a little swollen. Tell me where it hurts when I apply pressure."

She put her hand on my side and I winced and told her when it hurt. She nodded and said something about icing it and then if it was still swollen and hurting really badly by nightfall to have a doctor look at it. She handed me an ice pack and sent me off on my way, writing me a note to English because the bell had already rang.

I chuckled on my way to class. My dad was a doctor so I didn't need to go to see one. That was probably the best part of my dad's job. If I got sick or hurt he always knew what to do and there was never the unnecessary ER trip or anything.

"What happened?!" Hannah asked when I sat down after handing the note to the teacher. We were doing independent work so the teacher didn't instantly hush us but instead give us a warning look.

"Long story," I replied in a whisper and tried to focus on my work. I didn't want to get into that now.

"I have time," she said back, receiving a shhhh from the teacher. I ignored her and went back to my work. It was hard holding the icepack to my side and also doing work. It was uncomfortable to sit like this too, so what wasn't helping.

A little piece of paper flew onto my work. I opened it to find Hannah's curly handwriting looking at me. _You left lunch and then you come LATE to class with an icepack against your side. What happened? You have to tell me!_

_It's nothing. I tripped and fell, _I wrote and passed it back. That was a terrible lie and I knew she wouldn't believe that.

_Bull. Did someone push you? _

I sighed. I knew that wouldn't work. _Fine. Yes. But it wasn't on purpose. I wasn't looking where I was going and bumped into an upperclassman who didn't seem to notice pushing me aside and I fell onto a trash can. _That was a better lie. I would need to remember that because that would have to be my story for everyone else. I was about to open the note she sent back when the teacher snatched it from my hands. Hannah was really getting me in trouble this year. I remembered now why I wasn't really close with her. But it seemed like we were going to grow closer over the course of this year.

"As exciting as how you injured yourself is," the teacher said sarcastically. "You two should be doing your work. Don't make me tell you again or I will send both of you out."

"Yes ma'am," we both mumbled and left it at that. I dropped my head down and tried to finish as much work as I could before the bell rang.

When class was finally over Hannah and I walked out together. "You should be careful," she said in a worried tone. "Upperclassmen are a lot bigger than you."

"As if I didn't know," I sarcastically stated and stuck my tongue out at her. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I don't want to be late to study hall."

Her mouth dropped and I walked off before she could ask me more. I didn't want to go through all of that now. I was distressed enough, and spilling my guts like that wouldn't help. Besides, I wasn't supposed to make a big deal out of it and I was sure talking about it in the hallway was making it a big deal.

I entered the library and walked up to the man behind the desk. "Um, I'm Kaylee Parker and I'm here for study hall," I nervously said.

He looked up from the book he was looking at and looked me up and down. "Small for an upperclassman. But you don't need to tell me that every time Ms. Parker. Go sit over there or use the computers, I don't care. Just don't leave the library unless you talk to me first," he mumbled out and pointed at a group of couches and chairs before going back to his book.

There was no one sitting in any of the couches or chairs so I picked a comfy looking chair and opened up a magazine that was sitting on the table next to me. It was some tabloid magazine but I didn't have anything I really needed to work on so it would do just fine.

After a couple minutes people started piling into the area but none of them seemed to notice me or even care so no one said anything. The late bell rang with no disruption to me and I casually flipped the next page of the magazine.

"Kaylee!" I heard a voice cry out. I had spoken too soon. "What on earth are you doing here?"

It was Collin. Of course it was Collin. I just couldn't escape him.

"Don't want to talk about it," I mumbled and went back to my magazine.

"Shouldn't you be in class?" he asked and sat on the arm of the chair.

"This is my class now," I responded without looking up.

"No shit? I didn't know freshman could have study hall," he said with a laugh and pulled the magazine away. I sighed and looked at him. He had his usual smug look on his face.

"Wait, why are you holding an icepack to your side?" he asked.

"Again, don't want to talk about it," I grumbled, trying to grab my magazine back.

"Tell me," he insisted and threw the magazine to the floor. A kid sitting on one of the couches looked up from a textbook but rolled his eyes and looked back down in a quick movement.

"No, okay, I just don't want to talk about it," I pleaded.

"Wait a minute," he said after staring at me awkwardly. His voice dropped to a whisper "You left me to go see Mr. Jackson. Did he hurt you?" His smug was now replaced with an angry look. He stood and stared at me as if to demand an answer.

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_A/N: This is a little longer than I originally planned for this chapter but I wanted to get in Collin's little bit before the break. Kaylee just can't get a chance to relax can she? Tell me what ya think, leaving things for me encourages me to continue! Favorite and follow and stuff too cause that's awesome. _


	9. Arguments, Arguments, and More Arguments

_I don't own the TiMER or anything about it. Most of the story is mine though. So enjoy!_

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"What?!" I yelled at him. "How dare you accuse him of that. I don't know what is the deal between you two but if you're going to be my friend you are not going to constantly berate him and say things about him."

Collin crossed his arms and stared at me still. "You don't need to 'know the deal' between him and I. But he isn't all sunshine and daises, okay?"

"What on earth is that supposed to mean? He's been nothing but kind to me since the moment I met him," I fumed with a glare of my own.

"Well of course he has. His TiMER went off with yours. It's been what, three days now? You haven't known him long enough to decide what his character is," he responded.

"You still haven't told me what's so bad about him," I said. This was getting old.

"I shouldn't have to," Collin replied. "I'm not going to talk about it any more."

"Then leave me alone. Until you tell me what the grudge is between you two, you aren't my friend," I spit at him and picked up another magazine off the table. I heard him huff and storm off but I didn't look up to see where he went. I didn't care. I was dealing with way too much currently to worry about him. Either he would tell me why him and Andy didn't get along or we wouldn't talk. It wasn't like I could stroll up to Andy and ask him so there was no other way of getting the information.

I kept my head down in World History and didn't even care to pay attention. It wasn't very exciting anyway and I couldn't focus for more than a few minutes. Before class I had discarded the ice pack. I was tired of people staring at me and asking what was the matter. I didn't want to feed the lie any more than I had to. But because I had discarded it, my side was in a little bit of pain, which made it even harder to focus.

Somehow I managed to make it out of the school without any of my friends, or Collin, finding me. My mom's car was waiting for me as she promised she would be and I slipped into the car without saying a word.

"Hey honey, how was your day?" she asked. I remained silent and didn't even look at her. "You can't stay mad at me forever. I am doing this for your own safety after all. One day you'll see that."

And with that she started the car and pulled out of the school. I wanted to explode on her. My own safety my ass. Andy wouldn't hurt me. I know I didn't know him completely, but I could just tell that Andy wouldn't hurt a fly. He seemed too nice. And I could stay mad at her forever; that was something she was going to have to find out the hard way.

I wanted to tell her she was on the verge of getting someone fired. I wanted to ask her what she would do if she were in my position. There were so many things I wanted to say to her that I just couldn't. It was extremely frustrating and made me feel like one of those angsty teenagers who whined about no one understanding what was going on.

She told me dad was getting off work at five and that supper would be done sometime around that. I didn't even acknowledge that I had heard her as I made my way out of the car and into the house. She said something else to me that I ignored and made my way to my room before she could catch up with me. I closed the door and flopped on my bed, wincing after forgetting about my hurt side. I didn't lock the door due to the fact that my mom would have a cow if she tried to enter my room and couldn't. It was a rule she made a long time ago, and I was in no place to break any rules at the moment. I was pissed, but I wasn't going to piss her off.

A knocking on my window brought my attention back to my room. Spencer was standing outside in a tank top and board shorts, grinning from ear to ear. At least someone was happy today.

I got up and let him in. He gave me a tight hug and sat on my bed.

"I really, really, really miss you," he exclaimed with a sigh.

"You have no idea," I replied, trying to hide the pain from his hug.

"So what's going on? How's school? How's Andy? How's everything?" he drilled.

"You sound like a girl," I joked and stuck my tongue out at him.

"Sorry," he smiled. "My only company has been my pool and it doesn't talk back."

I laughed. "What a tragedy. You wanna switch? You can take my insane mother who won't let me see Andy at all. You can take creepy Collin who hates Andy for some reason that is beyond me. I just want to be able to be in gym again. I'll take your suspension if it means that."

He remained silent after that, confused as to what I was talking about. So I told him everything, even the running into a table. It felt nice to not lie about that. He remained quiet through the whole thing and just stared at me. He didn't interrupt me or look like he was going to judge me or even wanting to see me side, he just sat there. And that's what I needed.

"Wow," he said after a minute. All I could do was nod. I didn't know what else to say. "Are you going to get in trouble with me being here? It sounds like you are pretty much on lock down."

I shook my head. "My mom loves you. I could be grounded and you would still be allowed in."

"Very true," he said with a grin.

"Are you upset that your TiMER is still blinking?" I asked after a few minutes.

He thought about it before answering. "Yes and no. Yes because I'd like to at least know she exists. No because that would put so much pressure on me. I can just… live, ya know?" I shrugged and put my head on my pillow. It was easier before I had a TiMER. Of course, most people aren't stressed over theirs, but I guess I would never be most people.

Spencer told me all about his eventless days of being suspended and how even though it sucked he was getting more summer out of it. I nodded on occasion and let him talk. His blonde hair was sticking up all over the place, making him look a bit like a mad scientist. I couldn't help but smile at him, he was so animated about how he made friends with a squirrel because he fed it nuts.

"What?" he asked after he saw me smiling at him.

"I dunno. Can I not smile?" I asked, not know what to tell him.

"Well that's just the first time you've smiled since I climbed in here," he admitted and ran his hands through his hair. I shrugged.

"I'm just glad to see you," I admitted and closed my eyes. It was true. I'd missed Spencer. He was my best friend after all and it was tough doing this whole high school thing without him. "When do you come back to school?"

"Friday. So, two days," he replied.

"They are making you come one day and then have a weekend? Weird," I stated. He nodded and put his head down on the pillow next to me. After all that talking, we just laid on my bed and stared at my ceiling. Any other day this would be a fine and normal thing, but there was nothing fine and normal about me anymore. It was way too stressful.

I didn't remember falling asleep, but the next thing I knew Spencer was shaking me awake. When I opened my eyes I saw my dad in the doorway looking at me. Great, he was bound to ask how Spencer got in here and would bar my window or something. But this was my dad, maybe he wouldn't care.

"Hey sleepy head, dinner is ready," he said. "Oh, and Spencer you can join if you'd like."

"Sure if you don't mind," Spencer said and jumped off my bed.

"Nonsense, it's always a pleasure to have you around," my dad insisted and left the room.

Dinner wasn't as awkward as it would have been if Spencer weren't at the table. My mom seemed happy that I was spending my time with Spencer and asked all kinds of questions to Spencer most of dinner. She even brought out a desert from the freezer and served it to us all. If this was what was needed to bring peace to my mom I would insist Spencer move into the guest bedroom.

After dinner I went over to Spencer's to swim before it got dark. My mom would trust me with Spencer even if Spencer were a felon. Or at least, I was pretty sure about that. And it was nice being somewhere that wasn't my house or school. Hanging out with Spencer made it even better. Plus swimming was a great way to take my mind off of anything and everything.

Spencer's little sister, Julia, came out and joined us for a little while before their mom insisted it was her bath time. She put up a fight, saying swimming was one big bath, but lost in the end and left in a huff. She was a cute little kid. At ten she looked older and more mature and could have been Spencer's clone if Spencer were a girl. They had the same eyes and facial features and even the same hair color. Julia's hair was a lot longer than Spencer's, but it was still very similar. And she wasn't like being around an annoying little kid. She actually was fun to hang out with and even Spencer enjoyed her company.

It was nice talking with someone who didn't know about the whole TiMER issue, even if that someone was ten. She asked me all about Andy, in which I replied with everything but the fact he was my teacher and my mom was hell bent about not letting us get together. When I just told the good parts about Andy it reminded me how many good things there were. It lifted my spirit and kind of gave me hope. If the road bumps could be worked out, maybe all of this soul mate stuff wouldn't be too bad.

When I left Spencer's and returned home I remembered that I needed to talk to my dad about my side. It wasn't red anymore but started to form a nice bruise that was sure to turn all kinds of colors. Part of me didn't want to involve my mom in it though. I knew she would overreact. She overreacted at everything, so I was sure this would be no different. However, if there were something wrong she would need to know too.

They were in the kitchen when I entered the house. I could hear muffled talking. It sounded a bit heated but this time I would not eavesdrop. I couldn't do that to my parents. It was probably a private conversation because they believed I was still at Spencer's.

So I slinked down the hall to my room as quietly as I could. Unfortunately this meant their voices would get louder and clearer and even without meaning to I heard a few things they were saying.

"Why are you being so ignorant about this?" I heard my dad yelling.

"Why are you being so closed minded about this?" I heard my mom yell back at him. I shouldn't be listening. I knew I shouldn't. I was going to enter my room and close the door. Then I wouldn't hear them and it would be okay. My parents never argued and I didn't want to hear them arguing anyway.

It was my fault. Their unhappiness was entirely my fault. Because I got the stupid TiMER that had to be attached to Andy I was making people unhappy. I couldn't help but let tears escape. I didn't want any of this to be happening. I didn't ask for this. And I couldn't understand why all of it was happening. I had never heard of anyone having such troubles with the existence of their soul mate and TiMER and all of that stuff.

I passed the time by tossing my soccer ball in the air and catching it. This would probably be the only interaction with a soccer ball I would have for a while. The rhythmic sound of the ball hitting my hands calmed me a bit and helped me push the negative thoughts out of my mind. It would be hard not playing. I would have to find some way to get out my frustration.

Finally I stopped hearing yelling and ventured out of my room. It was eerily quiet. When I entered the kitchen my dad was leaning against the counter with his arms crossed. My mom was nowhere to be found.

When he saw me he tried to smile. "Hey kiddo. Have a good time at Spencer's?" he asked. Of course he didn't know I knew him and mom had gotten into a fight.

"Y-yeah," I stuttered out.

"What's up?" he asked after a minute of me just looking at him.

"Where's mom?" I asked. I should have just brought up my injury but that came out of my mouth instead.

"She… I don't know," he admitted and sat down at the kitchen table. He rested his face in his hands and let his too long red hair hang in front of his face. It had been a while since he'd had a haircut, which was abnormal but it fit him. He looked too old with short-cropped hair.

Even in such a distressed state, him and I looked scarily alike. Our hair was the same shade, our eyes could be considered identical, and I even had the same jawline. And at the moment we shared the same look. Neither of us knew what to do about mom.

"Is there something you wanted to talk about?" he asked after a while, looking back at me.

"Kinda," I admitted, not knowing how I was going to start off the conversation.

"Well you know you can tell me anything," he stated and half-smiled at me.

So I took a breath and told him everything about the injury to my side, the entire truth, including the part about eavesdropping that led to it. My dad sat quietly through the whole thing. When I was finished he nodded and remained quiet for a moment. Then he asked to see my side. His verdict was that I definitely didn't have any broken bones, but it would produce a nice sized bruise and be sore for a while. I supposed that was better than having broken bones or anything worse.

Dad decided that we both needed some cheering up and took me out for milkshakes. He said that if mom came home while we were out she wouldn't want to talk to either of us anyway and it'd be best if she went to bed early and before we got back.

We sat in the parking lot of cookout with our milkshakes and watched the cars pass on the highway. The sun had long ago gone done, so we were left with a bunch of stars and headlights as our lights. It was fine with me, and my dad didn't seem as upset now, so it must have suited him as well. If there was one thing I was glad about it was that my dad was on my side. I wouldn't know what I would have done without him.

When we got back my mom was sitting on the couch, reading something from her kindle. She didn't look happy. But she didn't look up when we entered. I said goodnight to my dad, hugged him, and even tried to say goodnight to my mom. She didn't reply so I left the room and headed to my bedroom.

Spencer waved at me from his room when I turned on my light. I waved back and made a face at him. He stuck his tongue out at me and I returned the favor. He then stuck up a piece of paper he had just written that said _sleep well miss fox. _And turned out his light.

It took me a while to go to sleep and even after I had I didn't reach a deep sleep. I kept twisting and turning and finally got up, deciding I needed a glass of water. The house was quiet, so I tiptoed down the hall. The door to the guest bedroom was open, which was out of the norm. I tiptoed to the opening and looked in. Inside, fast asleep, was my dad. He'd never slept in the guest bedroom. He'd never even fallen asleep on the couch before. The reality of my parents' unhappiness hit me then. And it was entirely my fault. I didn't know how to make it better either. Just my existence was causing all these problems. Because even without the TiMER Andy would still be my soulmate. It was weird to think what would have happened without TiMERs. Would he have still frozen slightly at the door when he entered the classroom a couple days ago? Spencer wouldn't have gotten into the fight with Brandon Tyler and suspended but there probably would have been some kind of altercation with those two, that was a given. I didn't know how much things would be different, but if the TiMERs really were true and if what Andy said about seeing me beyond the TiMER was true then there still would have been issues even without the TiMER.

I settled back to bed and fitfully slept again. Right before I hit a deep sleep a tapping on my window woke me up. Thinking it was Spencer I ignored it and rolled away from the window. I needed sleep. He could sleep in all day but I had school. Whatever it was could wait until tomorrow.

The tapping didn't stop though. He was bound to wake up my parents if he kept doing that. It must be serious though. I groaned and clapped to turn on the lights in my room. When the window was lit it proved to be Andy outside my window, not Spencer.

I jumped up quickly and opened my window. "Andy!" I gasped and let him in my room. "What on earth are you doing here?"

"I couldn't sleep," he admitted and smiled at me. I suddenly became conscious to the fact that I was only wearing an oversized t-shirt and quickly found a pair of shorts to throw on. He laughed.

"I… I wasn't expecting any visitors," I said and turned blood red.

"Well that's definitely a good thing," he said back and looked around my room. My room probably looked a bit girly and I was now wishing I had painted it a different color after my mom painted it a pale pink after my fifth birthday. I had gone away to my aunt's house for a week to visit her and my cousin and came home to the surprise. Pink has never been a favorite color of mine but I told her I loved it and never complained about it. Her and my dad put a lot of work into it, sponge painting the lower half a darker pink to add a cool texture. It was a nice gesture, even if I didn't like the color, and I was grateful for it.

"I didn't know you were a fan of The Allman Brothers," Andy pointed out, looking at the poster I had on my wall. My wall was pretty cluttered with posters and paintings and pictures, but in a well-done manner, at least I hoped so.

"There's a lot of things you don't know about me," I said aloud and then froze. That came out a lot harsher than I meant. What was I doing?

He just chuckled and sat at the end of my bed. "This is true," he simply said and looked at me with a smile.

"So, what are you doing here?" I asked while nervously looking over at my door. If my mom heard us talking she would call the police on the spot. Even my dad wouldn't be happy about this I was sure.

He shrugged and continued to look around my room. I knew my room couldn't be that exciting. Instead of asking him again I sat down on my bed and just looked at him. He seemed at peace and didn't say a word. Even though I was still nervous my parents would barge in any moment, this felt okay.

"What?" he asked after a minute, apparently now aware of the fact of me looking at him.

"I figure you'll talk when you want, so I'm just looking at you looking around my room," I replied. He nodded and turned his attention to me.

"Are you okay?" he asked sincerely and moved closer to me. His hand grabbed mine and it felt like a wave of electricity shot through me.

"I-I guess," I said. Suddenly my mind had gone hazy. He looked like he didn't believe me and said nothing. "Are you?"

"I'm here, things couldn't be better," he said. I just nodded and stared at him. A piece of lint or dust floated through the room and landed on Andy's cheek. I laughed softly and instinctively moved my free hand to brush it off his face. When my hand came in contact with his face we both froze. His face had facial hair on it so he was scruffy but it still felt really nice. It was awkward to touch someone's face like that for a long time for no reason but I couldn't find the desire to move at all.

I leaned forward and met my lips to his without even thinking. There was so much energy and passion behind my move and he moved his hands to my lower back. The feeling that I had when he'd done that the other day, led me out of the school with his hand on my lower back, returned and it felt wonderful. His lips were soft and his scruff tickled my face. My other hand moved up to his neck and he pulled me onto his lap. This was a much more deeper kiss than the one I had shared with Spencer. It felt different. It felt more alive. There wasn't desperation to it or a need to prove anything.

"Honey, I wanted to make sure you-" a voice said causing me to jump back. I hit my head on my backboard of my bed and jolted up.

My room was dark and I was still lying in my bed in only an oversized t-shirt. I looked to my window, the shades were down. I had been dreaming. That had all been a dream. I had kissed Andy… in a dream. That wasn't real.

"You okay?" the voice asked. I looked over and saw that the voice belonged to my mom.

"I- Yeah, sorry, had a weird dream," I responded and looked at my mom. Why was she coming to my room when it was still dark out?

"Oh," she said. "You want to talk about it."

"No, no," I insisted. There was no way I wanted to tell her about that dream. She would put bars on my window. I laughed a little on the inside. Andy didn't even know which window was mine. There was no way he would risk coming to my house in the middle of the night and knocking on various windows. That whole dream was ridiculous. A piece of dust floated onto his face? Did things like that actually happen in real life? That should have tipped me off that it was a dream.

"Well, alright. I just wanted to tell you I love you," she said. Was that really all she came into my room to wake me up to tell me? "And that I'm going to a conference today for a couple days. With all that's been going on I forgot to tell you earlier."

Ah, that made a bit more sense. I nodded at her, told her I loved her too, and watched her close the door. I was too tired to think anything more about it and rolled over on my bed. Within a matter of minutes I fell into a dark, dreamless sleep.

* * *

_A/N: This was a fairly long chapter, longest one yet at least. Hope ya enjoyed it! Tell me what you think. Feedback is great ya know. Do you think mom is **really** going to a conference? What will happen in her abscense? What do you think about Kaylee's dream? Crazy huh? And geez, it seems as if Collin has something he's hiding, what do you think it is?_

_Thanks for reading!_


	10. New Authors note!

**Hey guys!**

**So I've finally updated the story with the major edit.**

**I know it has been a long while since I've said I was doing that.**

**But I've been insanely busy. I'm entering my third year of college and so far I've been slammed with things to do.**

**I can't promise when the next chapter will be up, but I can promise that there will be a next chapter.**

**Bear with me guys.**

**I'm still writing this!**

**For now read over the edits and tell me if I've made any mistakes and what you think about the edits, etc.**

**Thanks!**

**You guys are great!**


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